The Sisters Grimm
by DapperDalton
Summary: Taylor Hebert's life was a living hell. It only changed when she met the Undersiders on that night she faced Lung. There had been no where else for her to go but to them. What if that situation had changed? Ruby Rose and and Yang Xia-Long's arrival in Brockton Bay would cause a lot of things to shift. Watch out, The Sisters Grimm are on the hunt.
1. Consolidate 11

"Muh… Motherfucker!" The scream rang out from behind me as I ran towards the fire escape. A wave of fire slammed into my back, illuminating the rooftop as I was sent skidding. Gravel ground against the spidersilk of my costume, and back slammed into the lip of the roof. Fingers quickly went to checking to make sure nothing had caught fire despite the aches from where she had gotten hit. Suit wasn't burning, and neither way my hair. Lucky, but I would rather have had the luck earlier.

Looking up, I spotted the giant person clad in silver scales slowly get to his feet. One clawed hand covered the part of his face I had gotten with pepper spray. The other uncovered eye was squinted shut, the bee I had stung him with earlier still affecting him. He started moving forward, his head slowly turning from side to side as he searched for me. Flinging a hand out, a wave of fire surged out and over half the roof. Pulling my head in, I curled up into a ball and let the flames go over me. Even through the costume, it still felt like I was being cooked alive.

"Cock. Sucker." He stopped and growled, head still swinging back and forth as he tried to hear me. His voice came out with a thick accent between ragged breaths, somewhere between Japanese and a rock in a washing machine. "Move. Give me something to aim for."

With no other option, I stopped moving and held my breath. The longer he didn't know where I was, the longer I had to come up with a plan. Current plan… stay there until he got distracted then bolt. He was Lung, a parahuman with superhuman hearing, regeneration, pyrokinesis, and the ability to grow more draconic as he fought. I was a teenage girl with a spider silk suit, a scattered swarm of insects, and a canister of pepper spray. I'd never win a straight up fight.

His hand came away from his face as he started blinking slowly, moving his head from side to side as he squinted out of both eyes. The pepper spray was wearing out, because of course it would. It was just my luck that something meant to have someone writhing on the ground for thirty minutes lasted maybe a minute tops. Why in the world did the Protectorate let this guy run free?

He suddenly moved with a roar, flames wreathing his hands, and I screwed my eyes shut.

The whoosh of crackling flames filled my ears, but none of the pain that came from being burned alive. Opening one eye, the other came open in a confused stare at him. He was sending twin gouts of flame towards the edge of one of the adjacent roofs, a three story office building. Straining my eyes, I couldn't see what he was attacking through the mixture of fire and gloom.

A thunderous crack split the night as a gun somewhere fired, punching through his scales with a burst of blood. A short figure suddenly landed between me and Lung, even as he stumbled and roared in pain from the shot, rose petals starting to float down onto the roof. There were only three discernable things from the angle I was at. A large vibrant red cloak that covered the person, the black combat boots that poked out from beneath it, and their weapon.

It was a ridiculously massive scythe, taller than the figure holding it. It was even taller than me! The blade gleamed in the flickering light of the flames, a line showing where it was divided into two separate sections. A red and black section ran along its spine, individual joints showing. Probably to retract the blade so it was less in the way. If the bit of metal sticking out from the back of the scythe's head was any indication, it doubled as a gun.

"I'LL ILL OU!" Whirling around to face the person who shot him, the giant roared even as he grew even taller. Even as he started to raise his arms to blast the newcomer with flaming death, the loud crack of brick and concrete shattering filled the air. Another person came hurtling from the rooftop he'd just been blasting with fire. The only things she noticed before the person slammed a fist into the back of Lung's head being a long mane of blond hair that burned behind them, and a pair of faintly glowing red eyes.

The impact between the person's fist and Lung's head created a shockwave as an explosion happened, scales and bone cracking while blood and fragments of scale flew. His head was smashed into the roof, pulverizing the gravel as the person continuing on past. Their feet struck the gravel, digging a trough as they ground to a halt. They came to a stop beside the short person in red with a loud whoop, a wide grin spread across their face. Those glowing red eyes met mine, and we stared at each other for a fraction of a moment as Lung groaned in the background.

She was about as tall as me, but unlike me, she actually had a figure. A figure that made my inadequacies feel like they had inadequacies. It put Emma, hell, it even put Brockton Bay's resident blond bombshell Glory Girl to shame! Unlike Glory Girl, it was obvious that she worked out. Her costume made it abundantly clear. A sleeveless light brown leather long coat with two long tails fluttering behind her, bright yellow showing on the inside. It wasn't zipped all the way up, allowing a bit of the yellow of her tank top to show through as well as an impressive amount of cleavage. Right over the left breast was a symbol of a burning heart in black on the tanktop. The coat was left a bit open at the bottom as well, allowing a bit of her six pack to show through. It made it seem odd that her face was more covered than the rest of her body, with everything from her nose down wrapped in a vibrant yellow and orange scarf and a yellow domino mask around her eyes. It matched the rest of the outfit, including the bright yellow gauntlets she had covering her hands and wrists.

Her eyes crinkled in a way that could only be a smirk, before she winked at me and turned, one biker boot digging up more gravel. Pumping her a fist, a shotgun shell flew out from one as she looked over at the person in red. The two's eyes met as Lung struggled to his feet, and they gave a single nod to each other. Once he managed to get to a knee, they moved and my jaw dropped open.

Without a word the two split up, each one moving to one side of Lung. His head came up as he heard the movement and roared, hands coming up and sending waves of fire at the two of them. But he was moving slower, still trying to recover from having his skull almost smashed open by the blond's punch. The person in red crouched down before leaping up and over the wave of flame, rose petals and her cloak trailing behind her as she raised her scythe high. The blond turned, boot digging into the gravel for purchase let her launch herself head first into the wave of fire, one arm held up to shield her face.

Lung sluggishly turned to meet the charge of the blond, leaving himself open. The red cloaked person came down like a thunderbolt, the scythe's blade glinting in the firelight. A gunshot escaped the back of the scythe and sped it up even further, the blade catching his shoulder with a diagonal cut that resulted in his entire left arm being separated with a spurt of blood. Roaring in pain, he turned to grasp at the bleeding stump… and left himself open to the blond's charge.

The gauntlet found its mark in an uppercut, planting itself just below his ribs. Another explosion sounded out as the gauntlet released the shell along with the punch, the combined force sending the still unsteady Lung flying. The figure in red ducked low, allowing the silver figure to sail over head and off the edge of the roof. The blond charged after him, leaping over the figure in red as well while shouting back after her before disappearing over the side like a blazing comet. "Red, make sure the bug girl's alright!"

The reference to me managed to break me out of my stupor, and my jaw shut with a small 'click'. The person in red turned to face me and I shakily pushed myself up, almost falling over as a small tremor rocked the building. The lingering effects of fear and a surge of relief combined to make it to where I could barely stand on my own, lightly panting as the red cloaked figure walked towards me.

The first thing that I realized was the fact she was wearing a dress. A black dress gothic dress, the edges of the sleeves and the edge of the mid thigh skirt the same vibrant red as her cloak. A belt covered in pouches and sniper rounds hung off her hips, and a false corset decorated her stomach and abdomen. Tights covered the space between the bottom of her skirt and the top of her black and red boots, which went up to just below the cloak's hood was paired with a bandana to cover her nose and mouth, only leaving her silver eyes visible. If it wasn't for the insanely large scythe slung over her shoulder, her petite build mixed with the edge clothing would have made her look adorable. She stopped about five feet away from me, just staring at me as I stared back at her. She seemed pretty familiar as well. It took several moments with the only sound being the combat from below before one of us spoke.

"Um… A-Are you alright? I've got the stuff for first aid if you're hurt!" She asked, drawing an incredulous stare from me at the nervousness in her voice. I expected to be the one talking like that, not the tiny badass with a gun-scythe! The fact that it sounded like someone my age just made the situation even weirder. The girl pressed a button on the side of the scythe and the head folded up, leaving her with a bulky sniper rifle to sling across her back. With both hands free, she started digging through a pouch on her belt.

"You must be in shock, what do you do if someone is in shock… I learned this… Oh!" I jumped slightly as the exclamation, staring at her as she quit digging through her pouch and walked forward. "You need to lie down!"

"Wh-What?" I took a few steps back as she kept forward, blinking rapidly behind my mask. Out all of the things I expected tonight, being asked by another cape to lay down wasn't one of them.

"You're in shock! What you're supposed to do when someone is in shock is call nine one one so they can send an ambulance, then have the person lie down with their feet elevated a bit." She stopped and wagged a finger at me. What she said made sense, it just seemed so out of context with the fight happening on the street below.

"I-I'm fine." I quickly raised my hands in a placating gesture as her stance changed, head tilted slightly in what I could only guess was a confused pout. "Really, all he m-managed to do was clip me in the back with one fireball. My costume protected me, so nothing's burnt or broken. I'm just as surprised as you."

After a moment she nodded and looked like she was going to say something, before stopping and tilting her head the other way. After a moment I realized why. The sounds of combat had stopped and been replaced by the sound of the Blond's loud cheering. We both looked over to the edge of the roof, and then back at each other, before she started walking over. I followed after a bit hesitant, looking down at the street below. There was a lot of fire still lingering around, though none of the buildings seemed to have caught. In the middle of it all, in a small crater, was the blond doing a victory dance on top of Lung, who was unconscious and shrinking back to his human size.

I heard the silver eyed girl groan at the blond's antics, and I turned to look at her. That groan seemed really familiar, like I had heard it before… As she turned to look at me, our eyes met and I felt mine widen behind my mask as I recognized her. My head whipped over to stare at the blond as I finally made the connection, before looking back at the silver eyed girl. The process was repeated a few more times before I stopped on the silver eyed girl, my mouth moving before I realized what I was doing was a bad idea. "R-Ruby?!"

* * *

I quietly slipped into Mr. Gladly's class, the first one out of all the students. Walking to my desk, I sighed in relief as I noticed it completely clear of glue or juice. Madison couldn't do anything if I got here before her, so suck it. Settling myself into the seat, a piece of paper and pen found its way onto my desk as I got ready. Or at least, made it look like I was ready for class. The pen nervously tapped against the desk as I focused on trying to listen for Madison.

Students trickled into the room from the hallway, idle chatter slipping by me as I focused. Only a few bits and pieces managed to register, a few of the popular girls talking about a couple new girls, Greg telling Sparky about Space Opera. None of it managed to really managed to grab my attention until a voice suddenly came from right next to me. "Excuse me, urm… Is this seat taken?"

I totally didn't jump at how close the voice was, not at all. Turning, somehow a girl had managed to get right next to my desk without me even noticing. I needed to pay more attention, it could have just as easily been one of the trio's lackeys. At the very least, there was no way this girl was one of them. Short dark red hair that turned lighter near the ends, a baggy black sweater with a few skulls sewn on it in red, black shorts that she could barely see past the edge of the hood, tights, and a pair of black boots with red laces. A goth punk wouldn't be able to even get close to them.

Noticing her fidgeting, I realized I hadn't answered her at all. Working up the courage, I finally looked up to meet her eyes. They were the most noticeable thing about her, a type of grey that seemed far closer to silver for their luster. What took me back was the obvious nervousness in them. An overheard comment managed to slip back into her mind, a couple new girls having started, and it all fell into place. Shaking my head, I made a small gesture to the desk. "It's open."

Turning my head away from the girl, the response didn't register as I went back to listening for Madison. It didn't take long for her and her small group of hanger ons to slip into the room, for once ignoring me in favor of talking about the new girls. Apparently the new junior had left a pretty strong impression, having snubbed a junior member of ABB pretty hard. There was already a small betting pool to see how long it would be before she got jumped.

"So… What's this class like? Is the teacher any good?" The new girls voice, despite its whisper, managed to draw my attention. Mostly do to proximity, as I glanced over and noticed her leaning over the side of her own desk to look at me. A few moments passed where I considered not answering, but they passed. If I kept just to the facts, there'd be nothing that could possibly be used against me. If she was trying to dig for info to get in good with the trio, she'd get nothing.

"It's… alright, if you've got a group of friends. Mr. Gladly gives a lot of group work, and larger projects like debates. He usually ends class a little early, give people time to talk or get to their lockers before lunch." There, an entirely true answer that didn't contain anything that could be used against me. The response was very expressive, a groan followed by slumping forward onto her desk.

"I hate group-work… It's so much easier when you're by yourself! No having to try and work around other people…" The grumble and pout the girl was making could definitely give Madison a run for her money in terms of cute. The empathetic nod came as I looked at the girl again, more closely. It took a lot of effort not to laugh as a realization came. This new girl managed to pull off what Madison tried her hardest to do seemingly unintentionally. The dark, slightly edgy clothing contrasted with her petite size and innocent face to just make them stand out more. The awkwardness just helped drive it home. This girl was cute.

My response died in my throat as I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Madison and her cronies had stopped talking. Glancing back over my shoulder, fears instantly confirmed. They were all looking towards us, Madison eyeing the new girl with a squint. An uneasy feeling rose up in my stomach, as I already guessed what was to come. The new girl would learn very quickly why associating with me was a bad idea. As Madison's eyes shifted to me, I quickly turned my head back around and sighed silently.

Mr. Gladly finally decided to enter at that moment, sparing the new girl a curious glance as he got to his desk and started sorting everything. A bit of movement out of the corner of my caught my attention, and I blinked to see the new girl holding her hand out to me. "My name's Ruby Rose, by the way."

The hand hung there for a few moments as I thought it over. Something about the gesture seemed… important. Like it held a lot more weight than what was normal. The temptation to snub her came, and then went as she caught the hopeful look in her eyes. Reaching her own hand out, she took it and gave it a weak shake. "Taylor Hebert."

* * *

AN: Alright, I am back from a long hiatus with… this. Why this? Why a crossover in this way? Well to be entirely honest, the idea's been bouncing around in my head for a while. I noticed Yang and Victoria shared a lot of similarities in terms of personality, and my mind went from there.

Anyway, some important information before people have to ask. Ruby and Yang aren't the ones from Remanent, these are versions of them that were born on Earth Bet. They're basically a Parahuman AU version of the pair. The only other characters from RWBY that will be important will be their direct family. Weiss, Black, Pyrrha, Jaune, as much as I love them, won't be making appearances besides the occasional reference or passing appearance. Putting all the characters in would steal screen time from Worm characters, and the different setting would mean the characters wouldn't be exactly the same anyway.


	2. Consolidate 12

Ruby's eyes widened and I immediately regret what I had done. Knowing a cape's civilian identity had to be a big deal, and blurting it out like that had to be something taboo. Even worse, by showing that I knew her in her civilian identity, I was providing a pretty big hint at who I was in my civilian identity. Panic began to set in, my breath starting to come in a little heavier and faster. This was supposed to be my out, my escape from school, and on my first night I ran into a classmate? It'd only have been worse if it turned out one of the trio was a hero, like Madison being Vista or Emma being Shadow Stalker! I started to turn to run on instinct, but froze as Ruby raised her hands up in a defensive gesture.

"Wh-who is this Ruby Rose of which you speak? Don't know her, nope, never met anyone with that name in my life! I am Red Riding Hood, member of The Sisters Grimm and independent hero extraordinaire!" Her hands came down to her hips, striking a pose and puffing her chest out.

Blinking rapidly, all I could do was stare at her for a few moments… before starting to giggle. I couldn't help it, watching her try to strike the same pose that Legend made famous was adorable. If I hadn't just seen her swinging a scythe around like the grim reaper, I would have said it was just an elaborate costume. Seeing me giggling, she huffed and crossed her arms, glaring in my general direction in what could only be a pout. Which only turned my giggles into full blown laughter, because I just couldn't take her seriously. "Q-Quit laughing! I worked really hard on th-that speech! A-And I'm being serious, I am not Ruby Rose!"

Shaking my head a bit, I started to regain control of myself as a streak of blonde came into sight from the corner of my eye. The blond had jumped up from the street below, landing in the classic three point position. As she straightened up, her head turned from me giggling to her sister glaring in my direction. Her hand came to her hip and her eyes crinkled again in that way that could only be a smirk. "So… Was my dance really that bad, or did I just happen to miss a real killer joke?"

The giggling stopped and Ruby groaned as I just stared at her. Did she… was that a pun? A really, really bad pun? In this situation, of all situations? I couldn't stop the giggles from returning at the absurdity that had become my life, as Ruby desperately waved her hand in my general direction. "Sh-She figured out my civilian identity, like, instantly! That's against the Unwritten Rules, right Goldie?"

Goldie's stance shifted and her eyes took on a more serious tone as she stared at me, arms crossed. The giggling stopped as the realization that things could still go to shit really quickly. The bugs still under my command started coming back, flying and crawling up around the sides of the building. A lot of them had been killed by Lung's fire, but I still had enough to at least distract the two of them and make my getaway.

"How'd you figure out her civilian identity, bug girl?" The accusatory tone made me flinch, and I quickly raised my hands in a surrendering gesture. Pissing off the girl who had launched Lung off a building, or pissing off the other who had cut his arm off wasn't on my list of things to do.

"I-I recognized her from school!" The words didn't seem to calm her down, as she took a single step forward. I took a step back and continued speaking. "She's g-got the same silver eyes, she's got about the same build, same voice, she even wears the same colors! I-It was next to impossible to not figure it out, and I j-just blurted it out without thinking."

That seemed to appease her, as she took a step back and sighed. Reaching up, she started to rub her forehead in thought. Ruby moved over to stand next to her, and gave me a curious look. "If you recognized me from school… That means you must be another student!"

I froze at those words and inwardly cursed. It had been my hope that neither of them would figure it out, or at least mention it while I'm around. The idea of anyone from Winslow connecting me to my cape identity was bad. The only things keeping me from swarming them and running was the fact that they were heroes. Heroes who had saved my life, and I did this in response. Guilt formed a heavy pit in my gut, and I shifted uncomfortably on the spot. I knew a way to make this right, I was just… gonna regret this.

"Y-You know me as w-well, you sat next to me d-during Mr. Gladly's class. You asked m-me what the class was l-like, and g-groa-" The sentence hadn't even fully left my mouth before the girl had started moving, ramming into me before I could even react. Tensing up, my arms flailed for a moment as her arms wrapped themselves around my chest and tightened painfully. It took me hearing her voice for me to realize what she was doing. She was hugging me.

"Taylor! What in the world happened back during school? You were all wet and sticky and colorful and when I tried to ask what was wrong you walked off! You didn't even show up Friday." The arms squeezed me and I'm not too proud to hide the fact that a squeak escaped my lips. How in the world could such a small girl be so strong?! I frantically tapped on her shoulder, trying to get her to realize that she was crushing me. It only took a moment before she realized and let go, a gasp escaping me as I took a few deep breaths to calm myself.

Her hands moved to her shoulders and squeezed gently, even as she kept on staring at me. I vaguely remembered her doing that during my walk of shame, after the trio had poured the soda and juice on me, a tall blond haired girl close behind her. I had shrugged her off and kept walking, only vaguely there as I hunkered down internally to avoid the humiliation. Another little thing to be guilty about, blowing someone off who had apparently genuinely cared.

"S-Sorry, I went home. After th-the trio drenched me, I c-couldn't just go to class…" I left the fact that I probably would have gone Carrie on them if they had done anything else that day not mentioned. Ruby and Goldie's eyebrows creased in a way that I could tell they were frowning. After she let go I took a few steps back to get a respectable distance, and Goldie moved forward to stand next to her. We awkwardly stared at each other for a little bit... until an armor clad figure flew onto the roof.

We all jumped and whirled to face him, my hand reaching for where my pepper spray used to be. Yang's fists came up and Ruby started reaching for the sniper slung across her waist. As the figure straightened up, his halberd jerked a little and we all relaxed. Not another villain, but a hero. Armsmaster, leader of the local Protectorate team and a real big name hero. Any other time I might have been squealing, but after all of that I was too tired to get excited.

His head shifted between each of us as he inspected us all in turn, halberd still held at the ready by his side. "You all gonna fight me?"

I shouted out "I'm a good guy." at the exact same time as Ruby and Goldie shouted out "We're the good guys!" We looked at each other for a moment in surprise before looking back at him.

The halberd came down to a more neutral position, and he stepped forward while tilting his head. "Two of you don't look like it."

I winced, visibly knowing that was true while Ruby went wide eyed and waved her hands as if she could ward away the villainous look. "Red and black is the best color scheme!"

A single nod was all she got in response, before turning to look in my direction. I kicked my foot a little and glanced over at the two of them as I responded. "It… wasn't intentional. It came out more edgy than I intended, and it's not something I can just remake overnight."

He looked between me and Ruby a few more times, the moment dragging on. I watched Ruby and Goldie, trying to get a better read on them. Ruby looked somewhere between a mixture of excited and nervous. Goldie didn't seem concerned or excited, just standing there looking bored with a hand on her hip. I tried to model my stance off of hers, it seemed like the sort of thing a veteran hero would do.

"You're both telling the truth." I looked back at Armsmaster as he spoke. It was the same tone someone would use to state a fact, and left me wondering how he was so certain.

"You've got a lie detector in your helmet or something?" Goldie questioned, apparently just as curious as I was to how he knew. He didn't respond verbally, only nodding as he walked forward and looked between all of us. A lie detector in his helmet… That seemed a little intrusive

"Anyone need a hospital?" The question left us all looking between each other as we shook our heads, all us pretty much fine despite just finishing an encounter with Lung of all people.

"Nope, we're good! We hit him hard and we hit him fast. Didn't even know what happened!" Ruby cheered, holding a hand out for her sister to high five. I felt a little pang of loneliness go through me, despite the situation. The last time I could remember high fiving someone was before Mom died, with Emma… Ruby glanced back at me and from her eyes I knew that she was grinning, as she held up a hand to me. It took a few seconds for me to realize what she was wanting, and then a few more to decide to hesitantly high five her. I could feel a small smile creeping onto my own lips, Ruby's cheer spreading like an infection.

A cough brought us all our attention back to Armsmaster, and the two of us couldn't help but look a little sheepish. "You're all new faces. And two of you have tinkertech."

"I'm Goldilocks, and this here is Red Riding Hood. Our team name's The Sisters Grimm. The tinkertech is a little gift on behalf of Lil Red. Don't know about bug girl over there." She spoke with confidence, as if she wasn't saying that to the most famous man in the city. She nodded over in my direction and I froze up slightly as everyone turned to look at me.

"I, um… haven't come up with a name yet. It's really difficult to come up with good sounding bug-themed names that don't make me sound like a villain." I rubbed the back of my neck, blushing lightly as I heard Ruby giggle along with Goldie and Armsmasters chuckles.

"I wouldn't know, I got into the game early enough that I didn't have to worry about missing out on all the good names." There was a slight hint of pride in his voice, though I guess being a long time super hero was something to be proud of.

The conversation stilled as everyone tried to figure out what to say next, an awkward air suddenly filling the gap. I was just about to open my mouth to speak when Goldie spoke up. "Soooo… Bug girl, why did you attack Lung? And what did you do to him, his regeneration was definitely slower than what I've seen in the videos of his fights. He hadn't even regrown his arm by the time I got done making sure he stayed down."

Feeling slightly nervous, I started explaining myself and everything that had happened that night. Starting from when I started my patrol, coming across Lung and the ABB discussing their plans to kill children and the fight all the way up to Goldie and Ruby's intervention. A small shiver ran through me as I finished it up, reaching a hand to rub at my back. "If they hadn't shown up, I probably would be dead by now."

Ruby reached up and patted my shoulder, even as Goldie let out a low whistle. I glanced at Ruby and gave her a weak smile, ignoring the little voice in the back of my head telling me not to trust her. Even if I couldn't, it felt nice to have someone care. Even if it was just an act. Armsmaster spoke up again in his 'The sky is blue' voice. "That's why we have the Wards program."

I glanced at him and nodded, even as I spotted Yang rolling her eyes out of the corner of my eye. It made me quirk an eyebrow, though that kind of seemed in line with what I have seen of her so far. I could get behind not wanting to join the Wards at least, I did not need more teenage drama in my life.

"You got Lung, right? In some super duper strong handcuffs that not even Alexandria could break out of?" Ruby suddenly spoke up and I blinked a little at her, forcing myself not to giggle at the mention of 'super duper strong handcuffs'.

"Lung is currently unconscious. I pumped him full of tranquilizers and restrained him with a steel cage welded into ground. I'll bring him back to the Rig after I leave." He looked over towards the side of the building, in the direction of the crater Goldie left Lung in. In retrospect, it was an impressive sight. Who would win in a fight, Goldielocks of Glory Girl…

"We need to decide where to go from here." Armsmasters voice drew my attention back to him, even as I mentally berated myself. I must be more exhausted than I realized, I wasn't usually so spacy. The question registered and left me confused.

"What do you mean, isn't it kind of obvious? You take Lung in, we go home to rest after the best opening to a career short of killing an Endbringer." Goldie responded with a casual wave of her hand at the three of us, and I felt a small surge of pride shoot through me. It was true, this was arguably the best way to jumpstart my career as a hero. Taking out the most dangerous cape in the city.

"Yes, but who gets credit for Lung?" We all stared at him in slight shock, and he raised a hand. "Hear me out. What you all did was spectacular, helping get a major villain into custody will always be. But there will be consequences to this, ABB will not just shrivel up and die. Oni Lee and Bakuda will be gunning for you and trying to free Lung. If he escapes, you will have three of the most dangerous capes in Brockton Bay after you."

"Who's Bakuda? I think we all know Oni Lee, but I don't remember hearing or reading anything about her." Ruby questioned, starting to look a little nervous if the way she was shifting on the spot was anything to go by.

"A tinker Lung recruited, first made her debut with a terror campaign against Cornell University. Her specialty is bombs." He answered the question, and we all fell for a moment as we considered the ramifications of that. A teleporting psycopath suicide bomber and a woman who's specialty is making insanely powerful bombs. It… definitely sounded like a dangerous mix.

Goldie hummed for a moment before snapping her fingers, an obvious grin hidden behind her mask from the light shining in her eyes. "They can't gun for us if we bring them in! Just gotta nab Bakuda before she gets a chance to build the worse she can. Just keep Lung from getting out, and we'll have ABB wrapped up before you know it."

My head turned and I stared at her like she was a madwoman. Armsmaster seemed to have similar thoughts, as his lips visibly quirked downwards into a small frown. "I'm going to have to discourage you from that idea. These are extremely dangerous villains, not the kind that new heros should meet, let alone go out of their way to fight. You might have gotten lucky and caught Lung by surprise, but they will be on the guard."

She shrugged in response, putting a hand on her hip and flexing her other arm. The light played across the muscles of her bicep and a stray thought crossed my mind. Was she as muscular as she was because of her power, or did she work out? If she worked out, why bother when her power would likely let her bench press a car? "We're not dealing with Lung. Me and Lil Red there are pretty good in a straight up fight, all we'd need is one good hit to take either of them down."

Ruby looked up at Goldie with a slight uncertain look before turning back to Armsmaster, a more determined look in her eyes as she crossed her arms and nodded. "Yeah! Even if they're dangerous, we aren't going to back down because of that. We wouldn't be heroes if we weren't willing to put ourselves in danger."

"If I can't convince you otherwise…" He reached into a small pocket of his armor with a sigh, pulling out three business cards. Holding them out to us, we all took them. A quick glance told me they had his number and his PHO number along with his logo. "Then come to the Rig so you can become an official PRT affiliate team. A new tinker in the city is a valuable thing, and I'd rather be on the side of the good guys rather than wind up under a gangs thumb."

The last bit directed at Ruby made her squeal a little and hop from foot to foot, nodding rapidly. The reaction elicited a small chuckle from him and he turned to leave, glancing back at us all for a moment. "If you change your minds about the Wards, call. They would enjoy having more members." With that, he hopped off the roof.

We all stopped for a few minutes, until we heard the sound of his motorcycle start up and leave. It seemed like a signal, and we all relaxed a fair bit. Goldie shoved the card into a pocket and rolled her eyes, even as Ruby kept staring at her own like it was some kind of priceless treasure. I put mine away as Goldie looked back at me. "So… You wanna join the Sisters Grimm?"

I blinked a few times and stared at Goldie, completely bewildered. My mouth opened a closed a few times as I tried to figure out how to respond, a shrug coming her at my reaction. "What? We know your civilian identity, you know Lil Red's. You managed to help us take out Lung on our very first night, and decided to fight him on your own because he was gonna hurt some kids. We could use more members. Besides, Lil Red here seems to like you."

Ruby glanced up from the business card and nodded rapidly, obviously smiling in my general direction. "Yeah! It'll be great to have another member of the Sisters Grimm, especially someone around my age. Oh, oh, I have an idea in mind for what your name could be if you joined! Even keeps with the whole 'Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales' theme we're going for."

The earnest excitement in her voice put me on the back foot. I reached up to rub the back of my neck, glancing between the two, the nervousness obvious all over my face. I was not ready for this, I had anticipated being a solo hero. Not being asked to join both the Wards and a new independent hero team. Ruby and Goldie seemed nice, but I couldn't be certain… "Can I... Can I sleep on it? It's not something I should decide while exhausted."

The two looked at each other and quickly nodded, Goldie waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Oh yeah, take all the time you need to decide. You can just tell me or Lil Red whenever you figure it out, and we can meet up… If you need a lift, I can give you one before heading home myself."

I opened my mouth to decline… before glancing up at the sky. It really was late, and even cutting fifteen minutes off my travel time would mean fifteen more minutes that I could sleep. Deciding to accept, I just gave her a nod. Another grin, at least I think it was a grin, was my response and she waved for me to follow as she jumped off the roof. Ruby suddenly sped up and leaped to the next roof, more petals trailing behind her. A small sigh escaped me, and I moved over to clamber down the fire escape.

A little walking behind Goldie later found us in an alleyway about a block away, where a yellow and black motorcycle waited. It was different from Armsmaster's cycle, less bulky and sleeker. She tossed me a spare red helmet before grabbing her own yellow one and sliding it on. It took a few moments of fumbling with the clasps to get the thing on and tight, and I was fairly sure I looked ridiculous with it on along with my mask. The smirk I could feel on Goldie's face only confirmed it, even as she patted the back seat of her bike.

Hesitantly, I sat myself behind her and grabbed the seat with my hands. Movies told me you were supposed to put your arms around the person driving, but… This was already too close for comfort by my standards. Personal contact had become fairly uncomfortable when it usually was getting shoulder checked or tripped by Sophia. If Goldie thought anything of it, she didn't say anything before starting the cycle up with a surprisingly quiet rumble. She kicked the stand up and we smoothly pulled out of the alley and took off down the street.

It was a very quick drive back to where I stashed my civilian clothes, entirely quiet except for the sound of the bike and me occasionally having to give directions. We pulled up in front of the alley and I got off, passing the helmet back to her to put away. I spotted a few rose petals floating past on a breeze, and knew Ruby was nearby. "Well… Goodnight, Goldie."

"Goodnight bug girl… And seriously, you did good work tonight. Even if nothing else comes of tonight." With that she started the motorcycle back up and drove off, leaving me to walk into the alley alone. A surge of pride rolled through and I couldn't fight the stupid grin from growing on my face. It stuck on it even as I changed and walked all the way back to my house. I did good work tonight, and nothing would change that.


	3. Consolidate 13

I groaned awake as the sound of my dad in the shower filtered through the wall. I feebly pushed myself upright, letting out a jaw cracking yawn as my hands came up to rub at my eyes. Exhaustion was like a weight trying to drag me back down onto my bed, and a few confused moments passed where I tried to figure out why I was so tired. It all came back to me at once, the reason I was tired. It was 3:15 before I managed to get back into bed, which meant that I had only gotten three hours in bed. Less of actual sleep.

A little bit of the exhaustion was pushed aside to make room for the surge of pride that went through me. A goofy grin formed on my face as I forced myself out of the bed and started on my routine. I had helped bring in the most dangerous parahuman the city had! I had met Armsmaster! I'd gotten offers to join two out of the three hero teams in the city! Oh, wait… I got offers to join two different hero teams.

The grin fell slightly as I started turning the offers around in my mind, even as I slipped out of my room in a pair of sweats. Getting down to the kitchen sink and washing my face with cold water provided a small boost of energy to tackle the issue. Dad slipped into the room as well, kissing his head and saying a greeting which I mumbled back. My mind was busy turning over at least one of the offers I had gotten.

The Wards were better than the Sisters Grimm in terms of pure mechanical benefits, at least I thought so. They got to go to Arcadia, got money put into a trust fund for when they turned eighteen, had things set up incase they were injured, and even got to train with the likes of Armsmaster and Ms. Militia. The downside to the Wards was that it'd basically be a second school as far as I could tell. Teenage drama, lots of 'supervision', and schedules.

The offer from the Sisters Grimm… well, I didn't really know what I would get out of it besides a position on their team. Did they have anything setup in case any of the members were injured? Would they include me in whatever training they did? Would I get an amazing tinkertech weapon like Goldie's gauntlets or Rubies scythe rifle? Would they want me to work spider silk into their costumes somehow?

"Taylor?" I finally looked up from my musings to see him giving me a curious look, his eyes at my lips. It took a moment to realize I still had a slight smile, even as I was focused inward. "I said, I heard you come in last night."

My heart rate increased and the smile dropped. I nodded and quickly took a sip of orange juice as I started trying to think of an excuse. "I… couldn't sleep. There's a new girl at school who's been acting really friendly, and I couldn't stop trying to figure out if she is genuine or not. So I went on a run to try and clear my head. Before you ask, I took the pepper spray with me and didn't go into any dark alleys."

A sigh escaped my father as he reached a hand up and ran it through his hair. "Christ Taylor, you could have seriously gotten hurt. This isn't a part of town where you can just go out at night like it's nothing."

I murmured a quiet 'sorry' and internally winced at the pang of guilt that ran through me, as I was already planning on how not to get caught next time. He just wanted me to be safe, and I was planning on doing the opposite and throwing myself headfirst into danger. Already had thrown myself headfirst into danger.

We both lapsed into silence for a few moments, just eating our food and looking anywhere but each other. He was the first one to break the silence. "So… There's a new girl trying to be your friend? Why would that keep you up at night?"

"She… It's…" A small sigh escaped me as I reached a hand up to my own hair, running my fingers through it as I thought of a proper way to respond. Logically, what was worrying me so much? Ruby was a hero, a childish one, but obviously a skilled one. There was no way she was going to be a bad person. Nothing the Trio had in their arsenal could really scare her. The idea she just was friendly with me to get me onto the team didn't work, she had been friendly before then.

It finally came to me. I wasn't afraid that her intentions at the moment weren't genuine, I was afraid of what could happen down the line. "I'm… just worried that if I try and be her friend, she'll decide she'd rather not deal with everything that comes with me." I was pretty sure it was a reasonable concern as well. Was pathetic Taylor really worth it? Did she really bring enough to the table when it meant social isolation and harassment in school for Ruby?

A small, sad frown came over Dad's face and he just shook his head. Reaching a hand out, he took mine in one of his own and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You're plenty worth being friends with. I'm sure she'll see that, Little Owl."

Sighing and nodding along with Dad managed to get him back to eating, even if we both knew I didn't really believe it. How could I be worth it, at least while in my civilian identity? Even my powers weren't nearly as effective as theirs. I control bugs, one's a brute that can probably bench press a truck and the others a tinker who makes fantastical weaponry as WELL as having super speed. What is that I could do that they couldn't?

Getting up and heading over to the sink, I ran some water over my plate to get the leftover bits off before sticking it in the dishwasher. A quick hug for my dad and explanation as to why my hair was burnt later, I was out the door and heading on my run. It was as good a time as any to think over the issue with the Sisters Grimm and Ruby in general.

The two choices for me at the moment are going independent, or joining the Sisters Grimm. The Wards were out by default. Last night had showed me just how dangerous being a cape could be. I had known it would be before, but this just solidified it in my mind. Most of the capes in the city could kill me if they got within reach. The spider silk helped, but it could only do so much. Having team-mates who could handle getting into the actual hand to hand combat would help keep me safe a lot.

What I really needed was more information. What were they offering, what was to be expected, a real understanding of what Goldie and Ruby were like. I couldn't really get rid of the nagging feeling in the back of my head that they were just trying to use me, I didn't listen to it. Even if they did just want to use me for my power… Faked kindness would be better than nothing.

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It didn't take me too long to finish my run after that, and a hot shower along with a cup of coffee were enough to help wake me up the rest of the way. The fatigue didn't leave me, but at the very least I wasn't a member of the walking dead anymore. A strange feeling came over me as I headed off to school, at just how… mundane this day was shaping up to be. I almost died and helped brought in the most dangerous person in the city. I had met arguably the most famous man in the city and got invited to join a hero team. It felt beyond bizarre to just be going to school like nothing had happened after all that.

I slipped into homeroom and glanced over at Ms. Knott with slight dread, anticipating some kind of comment for missing class and not turning in an assignment. All I got was a glance and a tight smile, before she returned to looking at her computer. Moving to my computer and sitting down, I tried to push the growing dread away as I started on the assignment. While it would be humiliating to get called up to the office later, none of the Trio were here to witness it.

The assignment, making a calculator in Visual Basic, was wrapped up within twenty minutes. That left me over an hour to use as I saw fit, and I knew exactly what I was going to use it for. PHO and its wiki were the best place for me to get info, so once they were loaded I started my search. The first thing I did was search up Lung and ABB, reading through the information on Oni Lee and Bakuda relatively quickly. It didn't give much in the way of new information, and I quickly skipped to the section on Lung's defeat.

'Lung was successfully ambushed and defeated by the Sisters Grimm and an independent hero with aid from Armsmaster. Lung was taken to the PHQ for holding until the villain's trial by teleconference. It is expected that he will be sentenced to the Birdcage should he be found guilty at his trial. If you have any information on the Sisters Grimm, the new independent hero team in Brockton bay, or the independent hero that helped them, you can provide it here for the Sisters or here for the new independent hero.'

A smile formed on my face and I resisted the internal urge to squeal. I quickly clicked on the link that seemed related to me, and was redirected towards a wiki page. The smile fell slightly as I saw the codename the PRT had apparently given me. 'Skitter'. It… wasn't the worst name, but it still sounded kind of villainous. I shrugged and continued reading, taking in how little information there actually was. Only a general description of my costume. The message boards were speculating that my powers were bug related.

Making a mental note to take a few pictures of myself in costume and get a verified account, I went back and clicked on the link to the Sisters Grimm. The page on them was small, primarily just a blurb about how this was their first outing, and links to the individual pages for each of the members. Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood's pages were pretty close to mine, with the only difference being that there was a little more on their powers. Goldilocks had been given a tentative brute rating by the PRT, and Red Riding Hood a definitive tinker rating. The message boards were going a bit crazy with speculation, and I couldn't help but stare at some of the ridiculousness that came up.

Shaking my head, I contemplated what to do next before the bell rang. Hurrying to sign off and shut my computer off, I quickly headed off towards Mr. Gladly's class. It occured to me that I hadn't gotten called up to the office, and I hadn't worried about it at all. The resignation at still having to face the music brought me down a little, but it didn't do much to dampen the slight high I was riding. The fact that Madison was already in the room with her hanger ons did.

I ignored their giggling and went to my normal seat, spotting the puddle of orange juice and the bottle underneath the chair. Rolling my eyes, I irritatedly took the seat directly behind it and started waiting for class to start. After a few moments, Ruby walked into the room. This time her previously black and red hoody had been replaced with a red hoodie with a black rose decal on the front. She spotted me and quickly headed my way, somehow looking still full of energy despite probably not getting any more sleep than me. Plopping herself down into the desk next to me, she twisted around to face me. "Hey Taylor! Sleep well?"

It took a few moments of incredulous staring before I realized she wasn't making fun of me or attempting a silly joke, she genuinely was asking if I had slept well. A small snort of laughter escaped my nose and I nodded. "The little bit of sleep I got was good."

She nodded and waved a hand at herself, jabbing a finger to a small bag under one of her eyes as Mr. Gladly walked into the room. "I barely slept at all! I as basically a zombie when I woke up, I probably wouldn't have been able to come to school if Yang hadn't let me take a few sips from her coffee. Apparently zombie and bouncing off the walls cancel each other out!"

"Yang?" I tilted my head slightly at the name, trying to reason out if Yang was actually Goldie or someone else entirely.

"Yeah, Yang! Big, tall, blond, awesomest sister in the world? You've met her!" Her response confirmed that, at the least. Made me wonder how in the world a girl named Ruby wound up with an older sister named Yang. Nodding along, I turned to look at Mr. Gladly while he started talking. Of course, he was just telling everyone to break into groups of four to talk about our homework. Sighing, I got up and talked to him to get a new textbook while everyone else sorted. When I turned around, Ruby was still there waiting for me, humming a small tune while she held her notebook and textbook.

She looked at my textbook and got a small frown, and it didn't take much to figure out what she was thinking about. Waving at her to follow along, I headed towards the one group I knew wouldn't have enough people. Sparky and Greg. It was pretty normal for us to be in a group together, since we were what remained after all the cliques had come together to form their own group. It was the first time Ruby was a part of it though, so maybe it would be better than normal?

I sat down and started getting out my homework, while she quickly joined in. Glancing at her list out of the corner of my eye, it was about half the size of my own list and was covered in small doodles… but it was more than the other two had. Sparky was just asleep on the table, and Greg was looking sheepish and excited at the same time. "Sorry, I didn't get much done. I got distracted by this new game that came out, Space Opera. Have either of you two played it?"

Ruby let out a small gasp and shook her head rapidly, pouting slightly. "No! I wanted to, but I was so busy this weekend that I couldn't get a chance to. It looks so cool! All the laser guns and explosions and high tech armor. Oh, my name's Ruby Rose by the way."

"Greg Veder, and you're going to love it. The tutorial is pretty good, but there's a few things you can do to get the best start…" I was quickly horrified and amazed as I watched the two of them descend into a discussion of the game. Someone who could follow along and keep up with Greg's wild ramblings, and respond with what was arguably more gusto. Though they seemed to disagree about what exactly made the game great. Greg said it was the plot and characters, and Ruby said it was the combat and graphics.

Someone coming into the room barely registered to me as I looked between the two in bewilderment as they argued. I glanced over at the person who entered, before looking away as it registered as being one of Madison's cronies. She joined Madison's group since there wasn't any group that needed a fourth member, and I managed to catch them giggling and whispering under the sound of the two talking at my table.

"Ruby, Greg! I know you two are excited about this game, but we have work to do. Ruby, here, read my list. I'll read yours. Greg, try and write something up quickly so you have something at least." I interjected into their discussion right when Greg was about to comment about a character's outfit, something about how a bikini was fine to wear in combat if you actually a robot shaped like a woman. They both blinked and looked at me, though only Ruby had the sense of mind to at least look a little sheepish. We swapped lists and small glare got Greg grumbling to work on his own list. I didn't even bother to ask Sparky to work, he was completely lost to the world.

My eyes roved over Ruby's list for a moment before I glanced up at her. She was giving my list a serious read, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on it. Looking back to her list, I was kind of surprised at the quality of it. It resembled my own list a fair bit, except with printed out sections from multiple websites instead of the magazine and newspaper cuttings I used to support my points. She also seemed to favor independent heroes, almost all of the points being about them. "This is good Ruby."

"Thanks!" A small grin formed on her face and she held out my list for me, and I handed her list back to her. "Your list was better, like, it was really really good! Where in the world did you get all of those clippings from?"

One of my hands came up to rub the back of my neck as I glanced down at the list. "Just old ones my family had around the house. You'd be surprised just how many times capes are mentioned in a single paper or magazine."

She nodded rapidly and looked down to her own list, humming slightly as she considered it. Greg looked up from his barely three point long list. "Can I read them?"

Ruby started to hold hers out to him before I reached an arm out and pushed her list back towards her. "No Greg, you need to work on your own. We'll talk about how the presentation will go, join us when you think you're done."

He grumbled again and turned back to his work, while I twisted back to face Ruby and we started talking about how the presentation should go. It wasn't long before Greg decided that he was done with only five points, and I just let him join because I didn't want to snub him anymore. Discussion ground to slowed to a crawl as I constantly had to drag Greg back on topic, and he had a tendency to drag Ruby off with him when he went. Eventually, a plan was hashed out as to how our presentation should go.

The time everyone had to discuss ran out, and Mr. Gladly started picking someone at random from each group to give the presentation. I breathed a sigh of relief as it was Ruby who got selected for our group, because it would have gone awfully if it had been Greg or Sparky. Ruby grabbed the prepared presentation and practically ran to the front of the room, stopping at the front. Practically vibrating with excitement, I was pleasantly surprised as she gave a mostly on point presentation. All the points we talked about were covered as much as we decided, she didn't mess up anything, and only went kind of off topic when talking about tinkers. The little rant about how tinkers had affected weaponry left me a little worried that she might accidentally out herself, though I figured most people would just assume she was a gun nut.

The other groups went afterwards, and I felt at least slightly satisfied to see that Madison's group only had a mediocre presentation. Mr Gladly came forward to announce the winners, and I couldn't fight the small smile that came over my face as it was our group that he named. Ruby cheered and held up her hand for a high five, which Greg and I gladly reciprocated. It felt good to finally get some credit for my own work, and not just watch someone else steal it.

The lecture followed and I started writing down notes, occasionally glancing over at Ruby to see what she was doing… That was a penguin with a laser cannon shooting at a giant demon crow. Alright, so she was doodling and only occasionally writing something down that Gladly had said. I reached out with a foot and nudged her own to get her attention. She looked over and I gave her a small frown, nodding down at my own notes to try. She gave me a small pout and grumbled a bit before starting to properly take notes.

Class crawled by like that, me taking notes and occasionally having to get Ruby's attention to get her back to taking notes for herself. He eventually stopped just before the bell rang to give everyone a chance to pack their things up. My team was called to the front of the class to negotiate where to get our prizes. Mr. Gladly looked at me like he was going to say something, but was cut off by Ruby calling out to me. "Come on Taylor, we gotta find Yang!"

I looked back at Mr. Gladly, but he shook his head and waved a hand for me to go with her. Grabbing my stuff, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly he had wanted to talk about. We left the room, and walked right into the Trio and their hanger ons waiting for us.

A/N: So… This chapter technically has a lot less stuff happening than the previous two. Which I think is fair, considering this is a consolidated version of Insinuation 1-3. A lot of 1 was introducing Danny, and a lot of 2 was discussing the Undersiders and ABB. So, over half of the chapter is based around 3, where the most differences would be. I contemplated having Armsmaster steal the credit for Lung, but decided against that. There's a new heroic tinker in Brockton Bay, he isn't going to want to drive them away. I hope I got Taylor write in this chapter though, I'm not 100% sure about the way she's acting.


	4. Consolidate 14

I felt a pit of anxiety settle firmly in my stomach at the sight of the Trio, but didn't have long to contemplate it as Ruby suddenly grabbed my hand and started dragging me along. They were expecting the speed at which she was moving about as much as I was, if the look of surprise on their faces were any indicator. A hanger on staggered out of the way as Ruby pushed past her. Turning her head, she called over her shoulder. "Sorry!"

A couple moments passed where I wondered if somehow, by complete accident, Ruby had saved me from the Trio. The thought passed when I felt something tug hard on the strap at the top of my backpack, and heard Sophia's annoyed voice. "Where do you think you're going, Hebert?"

We both jerked to a stop by the sudden force Sophia exerted on my backpack. Ruby glanced back at me and got a little pout, turning around fully and grabbing my other arm. Before I knew what was going on, she suddenly pulled me forward. A small squawk of surprise escaped Sophia as we both moved forward a few steps. "Sorry, but we don't have time to chat! We've gotta go meet my sister!"

Our movement came to a halt again as I could only imagine Sophia grabbed the strap of my backpack with both hands and dug her feet in. There was nothing to really say, I was being used as a human tug rope and neither side was winning. The losing side were my shoulders, as the straps of the backpack were starting to dig into them.

The stalemate continued on for a little bit, a small crowd forming from more than just the usual hanger ons to watch. A hushed whisper that sounded like it came from Madison was the only warning I had before Sophia just let go. The sudden lack of a counter force left me flying forward into Ruby, who collapsed backwards onto the ground with me on top. We wound up a confused mess of limbs on the ground, a chorus of mocking laughter around us.

"Wow Taylor, I always had you figured for a dyke, but never a pedophile. What'd you bribe her with to get her to be your girlfriend, candy?" Emma's voice drifted down through the laugher, and I felt the anxiety in my stomach starting to turn to anger and embarrassment. Managing to untangle myself from Ruby and stand, a quick glance confirmed to me that the Trio and their hanger ons had formed a loose circle around us. The halls were almost completely deserted by this point.

"I prefer to take my bribes in the form of cookies. And strawberries. Or strawberry cookies, those are the best." The dazed, slightly confused tone of Ruby's voice drew my eyes. She was still laying on the ground, a slightly glassy look in her eyes as she glanced around confused. I resisted the urge to introduce my face to my palm and bent down to help the girl up even as what she said fueled their fire. Despite barely paying them any attention, words like "child predator" "sex offender" and "pervert" managed to catch my attention enough for me to hear.

"Are you okay? Do you need to see the nurse?" The question seemed to confuse her for a few moments, taking slow long blinks as she looked at me. Eventually, a hand came up to rub at a spot on the back of her head.

"I'll be fine… I've done worse to myself running into walls. Just give me a little bit." The slight pained sound to her voice didn't help, but she wasn't the only concern at the moment. Turning to face the Trio, ignoring the insults and taunts coming from all the other, my eyes found Emma. The smug, satisfied look on her face drew a tight frown from me as we stared at each other.

"You've had your fun Emma. Let us leave." Apparently the rest of the girls found this funny, because they all started laughing at me. Except for Sophia, she just sneered in my general direction. The embarrassment faded completely, leaving only anger. I knew they had a couple other people they messed with, but they never went as far with them as they went with me. No one deserved to get hurt just because these bitches wanted to make my life hell. The thought of bleeding the emotions off into my swarm entered my mind, and I dismissed it quickly. At the moment, I wanted to be angry.

"The pipsqueak can run off if she wants, but you're not going anywhere Hebert." Sophia's statement drew my eyes to her for a moment before I glanced back at Ruby. My mouth opened to tell her to go find her sister, that I'd be there in a bit, but I never got the chance before she stepped up in front of me. Her hands came to her hips and she gave Sophia her best glare, which wasn't much.

"I'm not gonna leave her to you jerks! Go away and do whatever jerks do when they aren't bothering anyone. Jerking? Yeah, go jerking." Emma and Madison laughed at the declaration, even as Sophia stepped up to face Ruby.

"Listen here you little shit, this doesn't concern you. Go run off back to mommy." Her hands came up to Ruby's shoulders in a shove. Stumbling back a few steps, I couldn't help but notice Ruby's expression became a lot more upset. A couple quick steps found her back in front of Sophia, her hands coming up to shove her back in turn.

"No! I'm not going to sit by and watch you bully her!" The fierce cry would have been far more effective coming from Yang. Ruby just kind of sounded like a petulant child when she did it. The sneer on Sophia's face turned outraged, and she took one long step forward before planting a fist into Ruby's stomach. A strangled gasp escaped the smaller girl and she staggered back a few steps, holding her gut.

"Madison told you what would happen if you associated with her. But you didn't listen, you lit-" Sophia's words were cut off even as she stepped forward. I moved before I even realized I was moving, my fist catching Sophia in the jaw and sending her stumbling back. Ignoring the pain in my knuckles, I stopped to stare at my fist for a few moments before looking up at Sophia. She brought a hand to her busted lip and touched it, bringing the slightly bloody digit up to eye level before looking at me. Her face turned into a rictus of hatred, and she charged me.

I was more athletic than I was before my trigger, but that wasn't hard to beat. Sophia was faster than me, and she obviously had more experience fighting just from her stance. I tried to dodge out of the way of her punch and just wound up getting tackled right into a locker. My back and head slammed into it, and stars exploded in my vision at the pain. She backed up and I tried to push her away, but she simply whacked my hands away.

Her hands came up to wrap around my throat, pinning me to the locker. One of her knees came up and slammed into my stomach, driving the air from my lungs in an explosive gasp. The hands around my throat tightened, cutting off my inhale before it even began. Gagging, my hands came up to try and remove hers. She brought the knee up again into my stomach, interrupting my attempt as the pain made me try to double over and curl up.

My vision started turning black around the edges and I panicked, afraid she was just going to flat out kill me in that moment. My eyes spotted Ruby struggling with four hanger ons trying to hold her back over Sophia's shoulder, before squeezing them shut against the pain. My swarm was starting to come to defend me when she suddenly let go of my throat, letting me drop into a heap on the ground. "Prey like you need to know your place, Hebert."

Ragged gasps for breath were interrupted as my breakfast decided to come back up. I rolled over onto my hands and knees and puked my guts out all over the floor, feeling extremely lucky that I hadn't accidentally inhaled any of it. Just barely having enough presence of mind to tell my swarm to disperse, I felt my hair shift out of the way of my ear, and heard Emma say something with a smug tone.

Internally, I got the feeling that whatever she said was something horrible. But it was difficult to really give them the attention they deserved when I was busy feeling like I was going to die on the floor. Pulling myself back and leaning against the locker, my eyes flicked between Emma and Sophia's smug expressions, to Ruby struggling to try and break free of the hanger ons. Focusing back on Sophia, she turned to start walking towards Ruby. A cold surge of fear and fury shot through my spine, and I started trying to push myself to my feet. I was so going to wind up in the hospital again after this...

Hearing me struggle, Sophia's face contorted with anger and she started back towards me again. Even as I managed to get my feet back under me, she pinned me up against the lockers. "What the fuck did I just tell you Hebert, prey like you and that little shit should learn your place."

The only response I could muster was to spit on her face and growl. She reached a hand up to wipe it off, the hand tightening into a fist as she prepared to beat my face in. I closed my eyes in preparation of the pain, only to instead hear a roar of anger and an undignified squawk of surprise from Sophia as her hand came away from my shoulder. One eye cracked open, and then the other came open as I stared in relief at the wild mess of blond hair that dominated my view.

"Yeah, prey like you should learn it's place." The mocking tone drew my eyes towards Yang's, taken aback by just how furious the expression on her face was. Tracking her own lilac colored eyes to Sophia picking herself up off the floor with her own furious expression. I felt someone grab my arm, and found Ruby there next to me, guiding me back to sit on the floor.

"Fuck you bitch!" Sophia's angry shout drew my attention back to her as she charged, throwing a punch at the larger and older blond. Shifting her stance, Yang dodged the punch and landed a jab of her own into the girls ribs. Gasping in pain and stumbling to the side, Sophia got her feet back under her and twirled into a kick. Yang's arm came up and blocked it around the ankle, even as she was shifted a little from the force.

Stepping forward into the smaller girls personal space, she started unloading in Sophia's direction. There was little else she could do besides dodge around the blows, desperately trying to find a point she could either get a bit of distance or an opening to attack back. It was rather sudden when Yang continued spinning from one of her punches, a kick sending one of her feet slamming into Sophia's gut.

The blow sent her flying backwards, rolling across the ground for a few feet before she stopped came to a stop. She started trying to rise, eyes blazing furiously despite the shaking in her limbs. Yang growled and started to move after her, when another voice drew us all away from the fight. "What is going on here?!"

I turned my head, ignoring Ruby fussing over me as it became apparent who was speaking. Mrs. Knott was striding through the middle of the hall towards us. I spotted Emma starting in her direction, probably to make up some lie about what happened. Didn't have to worry, as Ruby was far faster and got in front of Mrs. Knott and started talking a mile a minute.

"Me and Taylor were on our way from Mr. Gladly's class and there were a bunch of girls waiting for us but I didn't pay attention to them and just went on past them to get to lunch to meet my sister but then the black haired one grabbed Taylor's backpack to stop us and then we fell into a pile and then they started calling her a pedophile for some reason and insulting her, Taylor asked Emma to let us go but they told me to go away while they talked to Taylor but I wasn't gonna leave a friend with bullies so I told them to go away but the black haired one pushed me so I pushed her back and then she punched me in the stomach, then Taylor punched her in the stomach and then the black haired one pinned her against the lockers and started choking and punching her at the same time while a couple other girls grabbed my arms to keep me from helping her, then she let go of her and she fell on the ground and started vomiting before the black haired girl started walking towards me but then Taylor got up for some stupid reason and that made the black haired girl angry so she was going to go hit her some more but my sister Yang showed up and kicked the black haired girls hiney!"

She took a massive breath at the end of that, even as Mrs. Knott and Emma stared at her in a little confusion and awe at the fact she managed to get all of that out with one breath. I was honestly impressed as well. Looking between the two for a few moments she shouted out. "Taylor's hurt and needs to see the nurse!"

Mrs. Knott's eyes finally shifted over towards me, and I could tell from her wince that I had to be looking awful. I certainly felt awful, still panting slightly despite the pain each breath brought. Her eyes shifted to the puddle of vomit on the floor and she grimaced lightly before speaking. "Yes she does. Take Ms. Hebert to the nurse, the rest of you, come with me to the principal's office."

Even as Ruby came over to help me to my feet and let me lean on her shoulder, my eyes looked around to find that only Emma, Madison, and Sophia were still there. All their hanger ons had fled at some point, leaving them alone. Sophia looked to be barely restraining herself from lunging at Yang, Madison looked like the cat that caught the canary, and Emma only looked mildly perturbed. Shaking my head, I limped off with Ruby towards the nurse's office. I was still trying to figure out if the beating I took was worth it to get a good shot at Sophia's jaw.

It hadn't taken long for us to get to the nurse's office, Mrs. Shirls, the older woman who worked as the school's nurse jumping into motion as soon as she saw me. She bundled me off into a bed in the back, passing me two ice packs to press against the bruising in my neck and my stomach. The ice helped, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off so it came out about neutral. Ruby lowered herself into a chair next to me, a mixture of concern and guilt written across her face.

We looked at each other for a few minutes before she opened her mouth to speak. The sound of the phone ringing cut her off, and we both turned to look in Mrs. Shirls general direction. She answered it and listened for a moment. "Yes, they're both here at the moment… I can send Ms. Rose, but Ms. Hebert is not in any condition to be walking… I rather not have her collapse half way there and have to be carried back here… Yes, I understand"

Hanging up and shaking her head, she tucked it into her pocket before turning to look at us. "Principal Blackwell requests your presence in the office, Ms. Rose. Ms. Hebert, your father is going to be called to discuss the incident and pick you up."

Glancing over at Ruby, I couldn't stifle a small giggle at the wide pout on her face. The two stared at each other for a moment before she huffed and looked towards me. I waved a hand at her, wincing slightly as the movement caused my bruises to ache. "I'll… be fine. Don't leave your sister to the wolves."

Nodding hesitantly, she dug into one of the pockets of her hoodie for a moment before pulling out a sharpie. Grabbing my hand and ignoring the indignant noise I made at the sudden gesture, she scribbled two lines out onto it. Stepping back and recapping the marker, she gave me a small smile. "My phone number and PHO account, so we can talk later. Since apparently we're gonna be getting interrupted here!"

Turning around, she walked off towards the door of the office and I caught a faint muttering of "Why didn't I give that to her last night?". Snorting and relaxing onto the bed, my eyes trained to watch Mrs. Shirls sit herself back at her desk and start writing out a form. My eyes wandered over the room, taking in the curtains and bottles of supplies as my mind started to wander and go over what had happened.

In one way, it was surprising that all of that had gone down. In another way, it really wasn't that surprising at all. Of course a hero like Ruby was going to try and protect her from bullies, and of course Sophia was going to escalate. She was nothing but a thug, but what was surprising was just how… psychopathic she was. There's a difference between the plausible deniability of getting shoved into the locker, and literally pinning someone against a wall and strangling them.

There was also all that stuff she said about predators and prey, which was definitely insanity. What did she think she was, a panther in a concrete jungle? It at the very least explained a lot about the way she behaved. Might makes right, and she's the strongest in the grade, so she gets to do what she wants. With Emma at her back to give her legal might as well…

The image of Sophia's shaking arms and furious expression after Yang kicked her filtered back into my head and I couldn't stop the giggle, despite it hurting my throat. Sophia would definitely be feeling that for a while. Maybe it'd teach her to have a little restraint… Ha, as if. The Trio would be planning their revenge as soon as they all got out of Blackwell's office, though it'd definitely be more difficult with three targets instead of one.

The offer to join their team floated back to the forefront of my thoughts, and it was definitely starting to look more appealing. While I hadn't gotten a good idea of Yang's personality beyond "runs to people's defense" and "terrifying when angry", I was pretty sure I had Ruby down. Bubbly, impatient, and happy go lucky, but kind and brave. She was like a puppy in a way, an adorable little puppy. There was no way she was just trying to use me for my power, it just didn't fit with what I had seen. If they were willing to stick up for me, I'd be willing to stick up for them. Definitely gonna have to use that PHO account to set up a meeting.

A/N: This chapter… This chapter. First things first, apologies for it taking so long. Ear infections make it difficult to focus, and college was being annoying. I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with the way this chapter went down, the fight in particular. I originally only had two hanger ons keeping Ruby back, but then realized two wouldn't be enough so I added two more. Originally Sophia kept her pinned with one hand and punched her gut with the other, but then I realized that was kind of ridiculous so I changed it to both hands and the knee. I had the "Cry yourself for a week" line in there originally, but then I realized that didn't make much sense since she was currently writhing on the floor in pain. There's a lot in this chapter I'm iffy about.


	5. Consolidate 15

Things moved slowly with my mind made up on what I was going to do. After Mrs. Shirls had checked the bruising on my stomach over, there wasn't much going on. The sound of Mrs. Shirls writing, taking calls, and occasionally helping another student was the only companion I had. Dad probably would drop everything to at least get me home before going back to work, but that didn't account for how long they might keep him in the office. Knowing the Trio, they were probably gonna spin everything against the three of us.

A small surge of anger at them and Winslow itself coursed through me, and rather than send the emotion to my swarm, I hung onto it. I didn't need to be dead to the world anymore, I had friends, I could fight back. It made me wonder how they were doing though, the two of them versus the world… If it didn't hurt to move, I would slap myself. Of course I could check up on how they were doing, even if I couldn't be there myself.

Reaching out for my swarm, it took a few moments to figure out where Blackwell's office was in relationship to the nurse's office and then to get some bugs that were small enough to escape notice into the room. Marking each person at their left foot, hips, and their right shoulder gave me a good estimate of height and size even if they were sitting down. The people around Yang and Ruby height's were standing and moving a lot, and there was that fuzzy hard to figure out noise that I got from my bugs, so I assumed they were saying something. The Trio were all sat down, though I could tell from how tense Sophia was that she was still furious. Blackwell was surprisingly just as tense, though if it was anger or something else I couldn't tell.

They eventually sat down, and everyone became rather still. That confused me, it seemed as if they were waiting for something. I joined them in waiting, and a stray thought occurred to me. My range was enough to cover the entirety of Winslow, and I could keep track of every individual bug in that range. Why hadn't I marked the Trio with their own bugs, and kept an eye on them throughout the day? It wasn't the same as doing something harmful, like giving them lice or sicking a swarm of bees on them. The answer was surprisingly easy to figure out. I had been so focused on not using my swarm to harm them that I never really considered using my swarm in other ways. I could even mark my homework with bugs, so that I know when it's grabbed.

My thoughts were disrupted as I felt everyone in the room shift, to look towards the door as far as I could tell. Grabbing a few more bugs, I marked the new person. Taller, broader, almost definitely male from the hips. It took a few moments to realize who that was. Alan Barnes. I felt my anger grow even more, and I had to shove some of the emotions into the rest of my swarm or else risk sending a wasp at him. Everything might be different if he just did his job as a parent, and not let his daughter become a bitch.

I could tell something was being said from the fuzzy sounds changing, and the fact that both him, Blackwell, and Yang were all moving. A lot in Yang's case. She tensed up like a spring, and all I could guess was that something he said pissed her off. Which in turn made her say something that pissed him and Blackwell off, given the amount of movement coming from all three of them. Ruby's movement to seemingly pull her back in her chair calmed things down, but now four of the seven people in the room were tense.

A silence fell over the room and it took another ten minutes before something changed, as someone else entered the room. Marking them left me realizing this wasn't someone I had ever met before. Taller and broader than Alan, and muscular. A few ideas as to who it could be flitted through my head, before I came to the realization that it had to be Ruby and Yang's dad. The build certainly fit Yang's, though it didn't really make as much sense for Ruby.

Yang and Alan Barnes started talking as he moved to sit down, and someone else entered before they both had even stopped. Another man, since it wasn't my dad the only option that remained was either Madison or Sophia's dad. It seemed to make more sense for it to be Madison's, because Sophia seemed the type to completely lack any parental supervision. Blackwell eventually suddenly moved, to slap her desk I assume, and everyone settled down.

Eventually, another and I assume the last person entered the room. I felt my heart leap into my throat as I got the bugs into position. It was Dad, and judging by how animated he was, he was beyond pissed. Several moments passed where the bugs picked up increased noise, as I could only assume he was shouting. Alan started moving as well, before Yang's dad moved. Whatever he did calmed Dad down enough to sit down, and what I assumed a recounting of what happened began as Blackwell moved a little and then Emma started moving with the occasional movements of Madison and Sophia indicating their support.

It looked like Ruby and Yang were going to jump to interrupt her, but their father moved and stopped them. He was also obviously keeping Dad from jumping up and starting to shout again, which honestly surprised me. It took around two minutes before Emma stopped moving, and Ruby started moving to tell her version of events. There was a lot more energy to her movements, letting me know she was doing a lot of hand gestures. It annoyed me that Alan obviously interrupted twice, Dad moving afterwards to pretty obviously tell him to shut up.

Eventually, Ruby finished her recounting of events and Yang started moving to tell her bit of everything that happened. Sophia tensed up even more than before, and I had to imagine her expression as positively murderous. Ready to leap out of her chair to try and eviscerate Yang, and from how tense Yang was in turn, I had to imagine she was ready to meet her. It took her far quicker to tell her version of events, and when she stilled Alan immediately started moving.

Dad started moving as well, and the volume of the room raised dramatically as I could only assume a three way shouting match started between the two of them and Blackwell. Yang's dad moved suddenly and there was a loud spike of noise before everything became far quieter. Everyone's dad besides Yang's moved to what I assume to look away from the group, and Ruby moved. It took a moment to realize she was lifting her hoody, probably to show the bruise from where she was gut punched.

Emma started moving and Ruby dropped her hoody before starting to move as well, starting to argue as far as I could tell. A quick movement from Blackwell silenced them both, and then her and Yang's dad started moving. The noise level didn't increase any, but I could feel Blackwell growing more and more tense as the two talked. Whatever he was saying was having an effect on her, and what I wouldn't give to be in the room with them so I could see her face.

After a bit like that with the occasional interruption by everyone else in the room at one point or another, it seemed like an agreement was reached by everyone. People stood up, the Trio along with Ruby and Yang going to their lockers. Madison's dad went back to his car while Alan, Blackwell, Yang's dad, and mine all started walking in the direction of the infirmary.

It took them a minute to arrive, and I mentally prepared myself to tell the truth involving what happened. They entered into the room, and stopped near Mrs. Shirls. Blackwell was the first one to speak. "How is Ms. Hebert's condition at the moment?"

A small sigh escaped Mrs. Shirls, and I could practically see her pushing her glasses up her nose. "Well she's not going to die or require a hospital visit I say. I was worried she had internal bleeding, but luckily she doesn't as far as I can tell. A large amount of bruising around her throat and stomach, she should probably eat only soft foods for at least a day or two to keep pain down."

A growl emanated from what sounded like my dad, and Blackwell sighed in what sounded like annoyance. She probably hoped that whatever injuries I had could be underplayed. Make it easier for her to get the Trio off scot free and paint the rest of us as bad guys."We're going to go back and talk to her, and then Mr. Hebert is taking her home."

They didn't even wait for her to speak again before they came into the back, and I found myself facing them all from where I was laying on the small cot. Alan and Dad looked like they were about to tear each other apart, and Blackwell looked like she had just sucked on a lemon. But it was Yang's dad that really caught my interest. It was obvious the two were related, with their features being pretty similar. Same small tilt to the eyes to indicate their asian ancestry, same blond hair, same nose, and similar build. He was wearing workout clothes, an open orange track jacket with a black white tank top under it with a pair of track pants as the bottom. He was the only one who didn't look perturbed as he entered, more openly curious. Though the expression slid into a small frown as he looked at me.

A cough from Blackwell drew my attention back to her, and I wound up meeting her stare openly. "Ms. Hebert, I hope your injuries are not too severe. We only need you to tell us what happened, and then you can head home with your father here."

She really wasn't even trying to sound like she cared, her tone made her sound more like she was talking to her secretary. I snorted softly and pushed myself up into a sitting position, ignoring her frown and wincing at the pain. "You want to know what happened? Fine, here's what happened. Me and Ruby were leaving from Mr. Gladly's class…"

I went through the full story, having to stop on occasion to let the pain in my throat die down before continuing. Everything from the moment we left his room to when Ruby started taking me away to the nurse. All the details involving the insults they threw at us, ignoring Alan's attempt to interrupt and barreling right through. When asked about why I threw a punch at Sophia, I answered honestly. "I have no idea. I saw her do that, and my body moved before my brain did. I guess it was just instinct."

That seemed to be enough for Blackwell, who stood up and glanced over to Yang's dad and mine for a moment. "What you said matches up with what Ms. Rose and Ms. Xiao Long said. And contradicts what Ms. Barnes, Ms. Clements, and Ms. Hess said. Until additional evidence comes forward to support either story, you're given a days suspension followed by a weeks worth of detention for fighting."

My jaw dropped and I just stared at her incredulously. I could feel a surge of anger welling up from my gut, at the amount of bullshit that was this entire situation. They corner us and throw the first punch, Sophia almost knocks me unconscious, and I get given detention and a suspension!? Just about to scream at her, she squinted and raised a hand. "Before you go off, Ms. Hebert, Ms. Hess and Ms. Xiao Long were also given the same punishment. The others were given two days detention as well."

A click sounded out as my teeth came back together. I was still furious, but there really isn't anything else to say. This was the most trouble they had actually ever gotten in, even if it was barely a slap on the wrist. The fact that both Ruby and Yang wound up getting in trouble as well because of me didn't sit well, but pushing to try and get them out of trouble might just backfire. At my continued silence, she nodded and turned to leave the nurse's office, Alan trailing after and talking low to her. I didn't need to hear him to know he was complaining.

Dad quickly hurried over to my side, starting to fuss over the bruises on my neck and stomach. Mr. Xiao Long shook his head with a small frown and looked at me curiously for a few moments. There seemed to be more there than just normal curiosity. I met his stare with my own and we held it for a long moment, before he seemed to find what he was looking for. Nodding, he reached a hand out towards me with a small smile. "Taiyang Xiao Long, feel free to call me Tai though. Sir makes me feel old."

Reaching out, I took the hand and shook it, ignoring the faint blush I felt on my cheeks. A quote vaguely came back to me, something about being able to tell a lot about someone by their hands. His were larger than mine, calloused. Despite his grip being firm but gentle, I could tell that he could have probably crushed it like a grape if he wanted to. It fit with his build, looking like what you'd get if you took a good looking surfer boy from a movie in the nineties and aged him up about twenty years. "A-Alright Si-I mean Tai… I'm sorry I got Ruby and Yang in trouble."

Dad started to say something, but was cut off by Tai's quiet laughter as he shook his head. "Don't worry about them Taylor, this isn't the first time they've done something like this. There was a period like this at every school they've gone to, at least until people learn that bullying in Yang's line of sight is a very bad idea. To be honest, I'm surprised that Hess girl got away with only some bruises."

My mind went back to the expression on Yang's face, and the resulting fight, I couldn't help but nod. She was one scary, scary person when she was angry. My eyes turned back to Dad as I heard him sigh and straighten back up, reaching a hand up to run through his remaining hair. "We really can't thank her enough… That girl is a complete monster, and I don't want to know what she would have done if your daughters hadn't intervened. You all need to come to our house for dinner."

I couldn't help but blink and stare at Dad in shock. The last time we had anyone over to dinner was before Mom had died, and we had barely had anyone over otherwise period. A small snort escaped Taiyang, and glancing over at him let me see the amused expression he had. "Fine, how does tomorrow at seven sound? We'll bring desert, mostly to keep up with Ruby's appetite."

Dad chuckled and nodded, and I couldn't help but do the same. Ruby had mentioned taking her bribes as either cookies, strawberries, or strawberry cookies. The image of her sitting at our table happily shoving cookies into her mouth was definitely an amusing one. I kept my left hand closed, feeling the sharpie that Ruby used to write her contact information. Even beyond setting up the meeting to join, just having someone to chat with was going to be… nice.

Reaching an arm out to Dad, he let me hold onto him as I shimmied myself sideways out of the bed and onto my feet. It hurt to stand, but leaning on my dad made it bearable. Wrapping his arm around my waist while I wrapped my arm around his shoulders to help hold myself up. Together with Tai, we slowly made our way out of the nurse's office and towards the front entrance. Luckily it was in the middle of class, so very few students were out in the hallways to see the little procession we had. Or watch me stop at a water fountain to finally wash the taste of stomach acid out of my mouth.

I could feel that all of the Trio had left my range as well as Ruby and Yang, but the two of them re-entered my range as it started to cover the parking lot. They were just standing in place, though it seemed like Ruby was bouncing a bit from foot to foot. We slipped through the front door and past the broken metal detectors, and spotted them with my own eyes standing next to an older sedan. Ruby bolted over from where she was standing, while Yang trailed after. "Are you feeling better?! I wanted to come back to make sure you were okay, but they were going down there already and my dad told me to just go wait by the car so I couldn't really come."

Raising a hand to cut her off before she could vomit out any more words, I nodded slightly. A small smile formed on my face, it felt… good to have someone else besides Dad actually caring about me. "I'll be fine Ruby… This isn't the worse that the Trio has done to me. I just wish you all didn't get in trouble as well."

A small snort from Yang drew my attention, and she waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "A little bit of suspension and a week's worth of detention is nothing. I just wish I could have got more of my money's worth out of Hess. If almost strangling you to death and beating you black and blue isn't the worst thing they've done, then she definitely deserved more than the few bruised ribs I gave her."

My mind immediately went back to the locker and I couldn't help the shudder than ran up my body. Just thinking about it was enough to make my hands tremble, and I had to clamp them tight to avoid it being too obvious. A quick nod at Yang was all that I gave before Taiyang coughed into his fist. "Well, girls, we should let Danny here get Taylor home so she can rest. We're coming over to their house tomorrow for dinner, so you can bug her all you want then."

Ruby looked like she wanted to argue, but Yang elbowed her and she sighed and nodded. I gave them and Taiyang an appreciative smile, because standing there was starting to get a bit painful. Dad gave him a quick nod and told him our address before bundling me off towards the truck, getting me into the passenger seat before climbing in himself. I watched the three of them pile into their own sedan as we pulled out, Ruby giving me a small wave before we pulled out of sight and onto the road.

Dad and I drove in silence for most of the way, though it seemed for different reasons. He seemed more like he was afraid that he'd start shouting if he opened his mouth, while talking just hurt for me to do right now. As we came to a stoplight, he finally sighed and looked over at me. "We're getting you self defense lessons. I want you to be able to give as good as you got from that Hess girl if she starts another fight… And good job with that hit you got, you busted her lip good."

Despite myself, I couldn't help but get a small grin at the thought. He gave me a small, tired grin back before returning to the road and continuing to drive. The silence that filled the truck after that was less tense, a bit more companionable as we made our way back to the house. Pulling in, he climbed out and moved over to my side. The pain had faded somewhat during the drive, but I appreciated the shoulder he offered me.

Making our way into the house and up the stairs to my room was a little difficult with us side by side, but we managed and I eventually found myself lying in my bed. He gave me a concerned look before snapping his fingers and leaving the room. I sat there thinking and trying not to move too much for about a minute before he returned with an ice pack. I hadn't even realized that we had one, but judging from the fact that he had washed it, probably had been tucked at the bottom and rear of the freezer.

He handed it off to me and I gently laid it across my stomach, hissing softly as the extra weight caused some pain. The pain faded as the cold sank in and numbed it, and a small sigh slipped past my lips. Leaning down, Dad reached a hand to my head and ran it across my hair. "I wish I could stay Little Owl, but they need me at work. I'll be coming home early and stopping to get you something to eat along the way as well. Anything you want?"

I fought off the small bit of disappointment that rose, making a small show of thinking about what to answer. Really, it didn't matter whatever he got me to eat, my appetite was going to be shot whatever it was. Might as well be easy on him… "Soup, chicken noodle soup."

"Got it." A small smile came over his face and he nodded, ruffling my hair up a bit before he straightened out. "Just lay there and rest, I don't want to come back to find the house empty and that you went out for a run."

He didn't need to tell me, a run would be awful with these bruises. I nodded for his sake either way, and he gave a small sigh. A few moments passed where he lingered by my bed, almost as if he wanted to say something heading towards the door. Stopping in the doorframe, his eyes turned back to me for a moment. "Love you, Little Owl."

"I love you as well, Dad." The smile on my face was evident in my voice, and I made a show of snuggling into bed a little. Finally satisfied, he turned and left the room. Shutting the door after him, I felt the bugs I had put on him head down the stairs and out the front door. It was only once he had exited my range entirely that I let myself get up and slip out of bed, wincing at the pain. Padding out of my room and down the stairs, I made my way to the family computer and sat myself down.

Booting up the ancient thing and getting it to Parahumans Online took turning off all the media and five minutes of waiting for everything to load. Eventually, it came up and I logged in. The first thing I did was look up Ruby's account, Crimson_Reaper_16, and look through what posting history I could find. There was a lot recently in threads about the Brockton Bay cape scene, but there were a lot of posts about different things and different sections. An oddity was the sheer amount located in a general thread dedicated to the Portland Cape Scene. Shrugging lightly, I sent a PM to Ruby.

* PMs with Crimson_Reaper_16:

Glasses_Girl_BB: This is Taylor. You all get home okay?

Crimson_Reaper_16: Hey Taylor! Yeah, we fine, just had 2 listen 2 Dad and Yang's awful singing on the way back. Are u feeling better?

Glasses_Girl_BB: A bit, managed to scrounge up an ice pack that's helping for the worst of the stomach bruises.

Crimson_Reaper_16: That's good. I feel really bad 4 not being able 2 help more. Couldn't use my powers without outing myself, and I'm not that strong without them.

Glasses_Girl_BB: It's not your fault, you shouldn't have had to deal with the Trio anyway. They're my problem, not yours.

Glasses_Girl_BB: Regardless, speaking of powers, I wanted to talk to you about the invitation you and Yang extended to me. I want to join.


	6. Preparation 21

The waiting after sending that last message was excruciating, as I simply sat there and watched the chat box. Maybe not delivering the message in person wasn't a good idea, it might come off as a bit cowardly. Or maybe she was having to talk to Yang about it, get her opinion. That'd mean she was uncertain though, right? Is she having second thoughts, after seeing me get so utterly trounced by a completely normal girl? The next message appearing broke the downward thought spiral, and she quickly read it.

Crimson_Reaper_16: YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YEEEEEEEEES!

Crimson_Reaper_16: Sorry just so excited! Me and Yang always talked about bringing more people in2 the team but that was just talk u know? But our first night out we've already got someone! YEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

All I could do was blink at the sight of that, staring at it numbly for a few moments… before giggling. The giggling quickly turned into a full belly laugh, despite how much it hurt. Literally every time I thought something about Ruby, she just went and through it to the wind. I really needed to stop thinking of her like I did everything else, she had more in common with a puppy than a teenager. The image of Ruby with dog ears and a tail popped into my head, which just caused even more pained laughter. After a small bit, I managed to calm down enough to wince at the pain and type out a response.

Glasses_Girl_BB: Glad to see I'm wanted. I have some questions, but they're probably things that should wait until both you and Yang are together to answer them.

Crimson_Reaper_16: Alright! Send them to me, so me and Yang can have actual answers ready 4 you! Saves on the hming and hawing as we try to think of the answers.

Glasses_Girl_BB: Okay. I'll just make a list for them all. Also, it's Yang and I.

1\. Do you all do training sessions? It's probably pretty important if we're going to work together well.

2\. How often do you all go on patrol?

3\. Do you two want spider-silk additions to your gear? It might take a while to make them, so I want to know early to get started on them.

4\. Will you be making me one of your tinker-tech weapons? I understand if not, they're probably really time consuming to make.

Crimson_Reaper_16: Oh, I can answer these questions just by myself!

1\. We've been doing training sessions since basically we got our powers, you're definitely going 2 be invited 2 them.

2\. We don't really have a set time 4 how often we'll go on patrol, probably just on the weekends or more often on breaks. Dad would kill us if we skipped out on school 4 heroing.

3\. That sounds amazing! Dad managed to get some ballistic weave that was worked in2 my costume a while ago, but spider silk would be even better! I'd prefer just an inline for the cloak, if you can do that. Yang's not interested though, likes showing skin.

4\. Of course you're gonna get your own weapon, I've already got a lot of ideas floating around 4 it! We'll have u try out some of the other weapons I've got lying around, see what works best 4 u.

Glasses_Girl_BB: Wait, your Dad knows about you and Yang going out as independents? And managed to get you ballistic weave?

Crimson_Reaper_16: Yeah, he's absolutely great. He's the one who made us train so much before even trying 2 go out 2 hero. Does your Dad not know you're heroing?

Glasses_Girl_BB: No, he doesn't know a thing. I didn't want him freaking out and trying to ban me from going out, or trying to force me into the Wards.

Crimson_Reaper_16: Well, now that you're part of an awesome hero team, no reason 2 not tell him! You've got us watching your backs. Besides, me and Yang talked about how you'd best fit in2 the team. Backline support and scouting master, u would be. Smart, me and Yang r.

Glasses_Girl_BB: Okay, three things. One, I'm not sure if he'd enjoy the idea of me being in a team with two other teenagers, regardless of how awesome they are. Even if I wound up being back-line support, as you put it. Two, were you trying to sound like Yoda there at the end? Three, it's Yang and I.

Crimson_Reaper_16: I was trying 2 sound wise. But, seriously, you need to tell your Dad. He's your family, and family doesn't keep secrets from each other! Unless it's for a good surprise. Also, are you a part of E88 or something you grammar Nazi?

It turned into mostly generic banter after that, which did a good job of distracting me from what Ruby was wanting me to do. I had always told myself that I'd eventually tell Dad, once things got better in our lives. Of course, I told myself this with the knowledge that our lives probably weren't going to improve any time soon. So now that it's actually seemed to improve a little, as well as everything over all... It seemed like I should really tell him. I just really didn't want to.

The conversation with Ruby did manage to reveal a few details that made some things make a lot more sense. They had originally been from Portland, and moved to Brockton bay relatively recently. Apparently Taiyang managed to snag a job as the newest Gym Teacher at Arcadia, and decided to give his children a "target rich environment" to work in. Either Taiyang was confident in their abilities, was really stupid, or actively trying to get them killed.

There was a small talk about favorite heroes, with me of course saying Alexandria. What surprised me was that Ruby's favorite hero wasn't anyone I had ever heard of. Petal Trail, an independent hero that had been back in Portland. I looked them up while we talked, and found the PHO page relatively easily. A mover/breaker from Portland, capable of turning themselves into a cloud of white rose petals before reappearing wherever any of them may have landed. The similarities between Ruby and her were strikingly similar once I had loaded up the image, not even accounting for the fact that Ruby obviously designed her costume to be evocative of her outfit, the main difference being the color of the cloak. She even had her own tinker-tech weapon, though hers was a spear instead of a scythe.

Apparently she had been a part of an indie hero team named The Huntsman for a while, before the team seemed to unravel. It was a couple years after that she vanished completely from the cape scene. Clicking on the link to the Huntsman, I found myself looking at an image of the team in front of what seemed like the grand opening of a new store. Petal Trail was off to the right, standing a familiar looking muscular man. His skin-tight orange and yellow bodysuit did little to hide his body, and the elaborate porcelain Chinese mask only covered the upper half of his face, leaving his spiky blond hair and grin exposed. Held in his hands were what I could only assume to be tinker-tech knuckle dusters. Hero name, Flurry vanished from the scene at the same time as Petal Trail. Brute with a Striker ability to increase his speed as he took more and more damage.

Next to Flurry was another woman, taller than Petal Trail but not as tall as Flurry. Morrigan, with the power to open portals. I wasn't entirely sure what opening portals had to do with an ancient irish spirit, but it obvious she based her costume on it. It was basically a recreation of an ancient Celtic warrior's uniform done all in red and black. A bone white mask, carved to look like a raven, completely covered her face and let her long extremely thick black hair be free. Resting with its tip against the ground was an obviously tinker-tech sword, lines of energy running along its edges.

The final person stood next to Morrigan, leaning into his own weapon. An absurdly large scythe, multiple sections bend slightly to form the curving blade. The tribal designs along the weapon continued into his costume, a silver and black ensemble with flowing lines of black forming designs along the shirt and pants. It might have been impressive, if it looked like he had put it on correctly. The shirt was untucked and askew, the pants rumpled, and even the silver bird mask he had covering his eyes and nose looked like it had gotten sat on. Crow's Eye, a tinker with a specialty in weapons and a shaker effect that causes "Misfortune".

I quickly typed out a response to Ruby's question before returning to read the page on the Huntsman. Morrigan was the first of them to vanish, seemingly just disappearing overnight. Petal Trail and Flurry were the next ones to vanish, a couple years later. The only one who remained was Crow's Eye, who seemed to wander from city to city. Looking at them all again, I couldn't help but draw some comparisons.

Ruby had an outfit designed to look like Petal Trails, with Morrigan's colors, a power that was at least laterally similar to Petal Trail's, but her tinker ability seemed very similar to Crow Eyes. Yang just looked like a female version of Flurry, though her hair did look a lot like Morrigans. If you put the two of them alongside their… predecessors, I guess, they probably would be taken as their sidekicks. Though Yang could probably have been considered Flurry's partner…

It helped to explain how they were so prepared on their first night out, if they came from a cape family. It left me with more questions though. What happened to make almost all of them except for Crow's Eye vanish from the cape scene? They could have just retired after Morrigan vanished, decided to settle down to look after their kids. And they could be like New Wave, the adults too busy with their civilian lives to patrol with their kids. It almost always was just Glory Girl and Panacea patrolling, if not just Glory Girl by herself.

Glancing back at the chat room, I thought for a moment about asking her about it before deciding better of it. Something like that, it'd probably be better to talk about in person. With nothing better to do, I just kept chatting with Ruby as I set my widows to working on the inline for her cloak, after asking for some size measurements. As I watched Ruby go on and on about some game or another, I couldn't help but smile to myself. It'd been a long time since I'd just chatted with someone like this. It was… nice.

Several hours later, I was lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. Ruby had to go work on the bit of homework she had, and eat dinner. With Dad probably going to be home soon, I had returned to bed to try and figure out how I was gonna tell Dad. I didn't want to, I really didn't want to. But Ruby had told me to, and if Ruby wanted me to do it then Yang probably would want me to as well. And the last thing I wanted to do was make them mad and mess up my chance of joining the Sisters Grimm.

I wasn't having much luck actually thinking of what to say, my mind just being stuck in a loop. I don't want to do this, but I need to do it if I want to join the Sisters Grimm. But I don't want to do it. But I do want to join the Sisters Grimm. Around and around they went, chasing each other as I laid there. Maybe I should have asked Ruby and Yang to be there with me when I told him, just for emotional support…

Wait, Ruby and Yang were the key! I fought to try and protect Ruby, Ruby had tried to fight to protect me, and Yang had definitely fought to protect me today. There was absolutely no way in hell he was going to disagree with me being in a team with them, the first new friends I had made in over a year! A goofy grin came over my face as a small surge of satisfaction shot through me, though it quickly faded away as I heard the front door open. I just had to put what I came up with into practice.

It wasn't long before he had found his way up the stairs to my room, slipping into it as quiet as he could be. I giggled at the sight of him tiptoeing in, and he jumped about a foot, which just made me laugh harder. He gave me a half-hearted glare before sighing and smiling tiredly, walking over and sitting himself down on the edge of my bed. "I figured you'd be asleep, Little Owl."

"Kind of hard to sleep when there's so much to think about… I also kind of talked to Ruby a bit on PHO, just chatting. They're actually from Portland originally." He nodded a bit to show he was paying attention, reaching a hand out to ruffle my hair a bit. He laughed a bit as I reached a hand up to swat at his hand.

"Interesting. They're a long way from home, kind of makes me wonder why a PE Teacher would move from there all the way out here… But either way, I'm going to go get started on the chicken noodle soup. Want to come downstairs and eat it, or should I just bring it up here so you can eat it in bed?"

I definitely didn't want to have the conversation we'd be having with me laying in bed, so… "At the table, like always. The ice-pack is doing wonders for the bruises, and my throat's going to hurt no matter where I eat… And I'm helping you cook it, I rather have dinner be edible."

He chuckled and ruffled my hair again, ignoring the indignant squawk that came from my mouth as he stood up. There was only a small wince as I stood up to join him, digging out a shirt to tie the ice-pack to my stomach. We made our way to the kitchen and I was surprised to see that he had bought the stuff to make it from scratch. I glanced at him and he shrugged. "I figured after what happened, you should get the best tasting meal possible."

I couldn't help but smile and gave him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. He returned the hug before we let go, and I grabbed one of mom's old cookbooks from where it had been gathering dust in one of the drawers. He gave it a glance full of melancholy before sighing and turning back to the ingredients. We started working on the soup, Dad chopping things up while I added them to the pot and made sure it was the right temperature. It over all only took about an hour to get done, and we sat down with steaming bowls in front of us.

My appetite had returned to me over the course of cooking, and the fact that I hadn't eaten lunch had reared its ugly head with force. Scooping up a good mixture of broth, noodles, and meat, I blew on it for a moment before taking a bit. The taste hit me hard, and I couldn't stop the tears that started to gather in the corner of my eyes. It tasted exactly like how Mom used to make it… We had never been able to get her old recipes exactly right, they always just seemed to be missing something. A quick glance at Dad told me that he was thinking the exact same thing as he rubbed a finger against an eye.

Neither of us wanted to stop eating, less it somehow stop tasting perfect. So in silence we ate, savoring each bite of the past as it came. Before long we had finished off our first bowls and went for seconds, and I even went back for thirds despite the slight pain swallowing brought with it. I felt slightly bloated by the time we were done, and just sat there as Dad emptied the remaining soup into a container and washed it out. "I'm thinking… we try to make spaghetti and meatballs for tomorrow's dinner. How does that sound to you?"

Another one of Mom's old recipes… I glanced over at him, and only saw his back as he washed the pot out. It was impossible to get a read on what he was thinking from his voice, and I had no idea whatsoever. "I think… that sounds great. It's been a long time since we had spaghetti and meatballs."

He nodded, and continued washing the pot out. The quiet left me with time to think, try and figure out exactly what was going on with Dad. Maybe he felt like it was a way for Annette to take care of me and thank Taiyang and his girls, despite being there? It made sense, but it didn't make sense for Dad to get over himself long enough for him to actually do it. I descended into thought long enough for Dad to finish washing the pot out, and shake my shoulder to get my attention. "Alright, I think it's time for you to get back to bed. Those bruises aren't going to go away with you sitting there."

Startling slightly at the touch, I looked up at him and gulped. It was now or never. "Actually, Dad… I kind of need to tell you something. I think you should sit down for it."

He quirked an eyebrow and looked at me for a few moments. I tried to not fidget under his look, before he shrugged and went back to his seat across the table from me. "Alright Taylor… What is it?"

Suddenly feeling very nervous, I tapped my fingers against the table as I tried to put it into words. "Well… You remember how I went out for a run last night to think about things?"

Slowly nodding, I watched his mouth drop into a small frown. "Yes… I remember telling you not to do that again, it's too dangerous. Why, did something else happen that you didn't tell me?"

Gulping again, I closed my eyes and simply forced the words out of my mouth. "I lied about why I went out. I'm a cape, and that was my first night out as a hero."

I kept my eyes closed as I waited for whatever his reaction was. Eventually, one slowly opened to see his completely floored expression as he stared at me. The other opened, and we stared at each other for several moments before he finally spoke again. "...How long?"

"...Since the locker incident." My reply was short, as I was fighting off a massive surge of guilt that was running through my system.

He brought a hand up to his hair, running it through his hair as he shifted his gaze to the ceiling. "It's been months… You've had powers for months, and you only just tell me now."

I nodded and stared at my hands, each one holding the other with white knuckle force. "I didn't want to say anything before I knew what I could do… and then I was worried about you trying to make me pretend I don't have them, or join the Wards. More teenage drama really wasn't what I wanted to deal with while being a cape."

His gaze dropped down to me again, and it gained a slightly curious bent. "Then what changed? Why wouldn't I make you join the Wards now, or forbid you to go out heroing?"

I let a small smile come over my face as the thought of working with Ruby and Yang filtered in. "Because, it turns out I don't have to go out alone anymore. Ruby and Yang… they're also capes. And they're really, really good heroes. Ruby is a tinker capable of making these amazing hybrid weapons along with having super speed, and Yang is a brute on par with Glory Girl."

He blinked rapidly and frowned slightly, scratching his head with his hand. "Are you sure I'm supposed to know that? Isn't outing a cape a big deal?"

I shrugged slightly as I gave him a hopeful look. "I mean, their dad knows they go out caping. And if I had to guess who trains them, he'll almost definitely know I'm a cape as well. I'm like… ninety percent certain he's a retired cape as well. Went by the name Flurry, back over in Portland… If it helps, they're planning on keeping me back away from the fighting. Backline support and scouting, that's what they'd said."

Removing his hand from his head, he sighed and laid them flat against the table as he looked at me. "...What even is your power anyway? If it's something that makes you better as support and scouting, then it can't be something simple like being a brute or shooting lasers."

Feeling a grin growing, I mentally commanded several fruit flies to come into the kitchen. Buzzing in, they took a position above the table and started doing tricks in the air. Circle into square into figure eight, eventually breaking apart into two groups to keep doing it as the other did something else. "Insects. I control insects, every one potentially independently, within about half a mile radius around me."

He raised his eyebrows as he watched the flies do their tricks in the air, eventually coming to buzz around my head like a halo. "Every single insect, within half a mile? That sounds… like a lot of insects."

I nodded and had the flies buzz off and out of the house. I'd tell Dad about the black widows in the basement later. "It is a lot of insects. There are more insects within a square mile than there are people on the planet. Even still, it's not as cool as a lot of powers, nor as strong, but I can find some clever uses for it."

"I don't know, being able to call literal biblical plagues down on people sounds like a fairly strong power." The slightly apprehensive tone in his voice made me wince, and I rubbed the back of my neck in slight embarrassment. That was a way of thinking about it that hadn't come to me before, and in that sense… It really was a scary power, wasn't it?

"It's… good for dealing with a lot of gangers at once at least? Hide someplace nearby and I could deal with an entire group without ever being in line of sight." I gave him a hopeful look as I saw him nod in agreement, a thoughtful look on his face.

"...I want to talk to them and Taiyang about it. I know it's what you want, but I want to know for certain this is the best option… I don't want to lose you…" A silent sigh of relief escaped my lips as I heard that, a small smile coming over my face as we looked at each other. Getting up, I walked around the table to wrap my arms around him. We sat there hugging, my face burrowing into the crook of his neck as I murmured.

"Thanks Dad."

A/N: So… been over a month since the last update. No interlude either… Huzzah for College?


	7. Preparation 22

A long drawn out groan of pain escaped my lips as I awoke to my alarm, shifting uncomfortably in the bed. At some point in the night, the ice pack had completely melted and the pain had come back. Just laying there for a moment, I considered the benefits of just staying in bed. Habit and the thought of a new ice pack won out as I slowly shifted my legs off the side of the bed and sat up.

Regretting the decision, but far too stubborn to quit now, I pushed myself up from the bed. It took a few steps and a hand on the wall to steady myself, but I got my feet under me. So far so good, time to head downstairs.

Getting to the stairs and getting down them was an exercise in frustration, leaning onto the wall and the railing respectively as I hobbled my way at a snail's pace. I eventually found my way to the bottom and got into the kitchen. Plopping heavily into one of the chairs, I groaned and let myself rest for several moments. It was long enough for Dad to finish his shower and walk into the kitchen as well. Stopping, he leveled a stare at me and crossed his arms. "What're you doing out of bed?"

"Habit won out… Can you get me a new ice pack and some Ibuprofen?" Shaking his head, he walked over and took the mostly unfrozen ice pack from me. Pressing a kiss into the crown of my head before leaving to get to the fridge, it didn't take long for a new ice pack to find its way into my hands. Wrapping it up in my shirt and pressing it against my stomach, a sigh of relief escaped as the cold numbed the throbbing ache of the bruises. Watching him pull the small pill bottle and a glass out of a cupboard, a thought passed through my mind. What was I going to do today?

"Got any plans with your day off?" Taking the offered pills and glass of water, I downed them as quickly as possible as I continued to think on the subject. I left him waiting for several moments as I sat there, sipping the water.

"Well… There are some things I want to work on related to my Cape identity. I offered to make some stuff for Ruby's costume, and I'd like to do some more research on what's going on the scene here in the Bay. Maybe figure out what it takes to get registered as an official independent hero team?" The comment drew a nod from him, as he shifted over to start working on breakfast.

"That sounds alright, as long as you don't strain yourself. I don't want to come home to find that you managed to hurt yourself somehow. If I could take off the time to stay home and look after you, I would. But the Association is working on a big deal to clear out some warehouses closer to the Trainyard, and I need to be at the meetings." The worry and guilt in his voice were easy to hear, and I couldn't stop the small sigh that escaped.

"Dad, I'll be fine. I'm not leaving the house, and I'm not going to do anything stupid like trying to for a jog in this condition. I'll just be sitting around the house, don't have to get up and move around to do anything." It seemed to help a little as the worried look faded a bit. He sighed and nodded, getting up and walking over to plant another kiss onto the crown of my head.

"Just take care of yourself, alright?" A noise of confirmation was enough to satisfy him. Walking over to the fridge to get started on breakfast, the routine fell into what would nominally be considered normal. Breakfast was quickly made, and light conversation started up as we ate. It basically amounted to more specifics on what we would each be doing today. It was nice to be able to openly talk to him about the cape business, even if it was still a little awkward. Especially after I admitted to keeping a colony of black widows in the basement.

He finished off his food and went to get his stuff for work, and I only slightly staggered as I made my way to the basement. Opening the coal chute wasn't incredibly difficult, if mildly painful, and let the black widows out. Getting them started on weaving the cloth for the inline of Ruby's cloak, I climbed the stares and made my way to the computer room. Sitting down and starting it up, he walked in one last time before leaving. "You sure you don't need anything else?"

"Yes Dad, I'm fine. The pain's faded, and I've got plenty to keep me busy. Get to your meeting." I waved a hand at him in a shoo-ing gesture, and he smiled and shook his head. Leaving me to my devices, I tagged him with a fly and watched it as it climbed into his truck. After starting the truck and pulling out, the fly exited my range and I knew I was alone.

Sighing and running a hand through my hair, I grabbed a paper and a pencil to write with. First things first, a quick glance over PHO for any potential messages and to double check the threads on local capes. A message from Ruby hoping that I had a good day and that I was feeling better brought a smile, and checking the threads on the three of us made it grow. The thread on me was still going strong with speculation on my power, with some smaller discussions on where I'll wind up in terms of Brockton Bay's cape landscape. Most bets were either the Wards or the Sisters Grimm, which was pretty accurate.

The thread on Red Riding Hood was gushing about how cool she looked, and I double checked the wiki. She had already gotten herself a verified account, and had added a little more information on her powers. I had to admit, the image of her posing on top of a tree with her scythe slung across her back like that was pretty cool. Especially with the editing that had been done to enlarge the moon. There was of course the usual creepers such as Void Cowboy.

The real kicker was Goldilocks thread, and the amount of people talking about her. Somehow, they had managed to get a picture of her mid-air with another over-sided moon behind her. Fist cocked back, and eyes crinkled in a way that you could easily tell she was smirking. She was obviously the most popular of the three of us, and the reason was pretty obvious from the way people were talking. The words "Glory Girl has competition" has never appeared as much in a single thread before, and likely will never appear as much again. Snorting a bit at the perverts, I shook my head and closed the threads.

Getting back on point, I started my search for a good cape name. My options were even more limited than before, because I wanted to follow the theme of "Fairy Tales". At the very least, it gave me a good starting point to begin my search. First were all the fairy tales that I could remember mentioning insects, of which the only one I could actually remember was "Miss Muffet". Definitely not going to pick that, but it went onto the list either way. Next came looking up a list actual Grimm fairy tales. Only two that mentioned bugs on that list were "The Louse and the Flea" and "The Queen Bee". Four names down, and only one real contender for a name.

Next came a general list of fairy tales, and the beginning of scrolling through it. It got me a few more names, but nothing that really stuck out. I thought I had a lead on the name "Buggane", but that just referred to an ancient irish ogre. Aesop's Fable's weren't any help, as everything was just named after what it was. Nursery rhymes only gave me Pied Piper, which while alright, wasn't really what I wanted. The idea of carrying a flute around with my costume just brought back bad memories, and there wasn't really any way to alter my current costume to fit with that theme.

This left me with the only real option left being "Queen Bee". That wasn't that bad, it kept up the bug theme, didn't innately sound villainous if a little egotistical. My current costume could be altered to fit the theme of a bee pretty easily, just a paint-job and some fake fur to stick on to make it obvious it was a bee, not a wasp or hornet. A collar probably would be enough, but maybe some on the calves and forearms as well? I circled "Queen Bee" and jotted down the ideas to change my costume next to it.

I could spend all day trying to figure out what kinds of changes I'd want to do to my costume, but I had other things I needed to do. Swapping over to the local Protectorate's official website, I started ignored the merchandise and informational section on the local team, and started looking for what it takes to register as a PRT-affiliated independent hero team. Finding the information was honestly really difficult, as it was tucked away in the larger section about joining in general. It basically amounted to "Show up in costume, confirm who you are, do some power testing, pass a test, fill out some forms." Simple enough, and it even provided a helpful link to a government website that had all the things they'd test us over.

Half the rest of the day was spent studying the legal articles and trying to make sense of them. I eventually swapped ice packs once mine started to thaw and made myself a sandwich for lunch, swapping over to sketching the new designs for my costume and a few ideas for weapons. I had no idea what I wanted in terms of a weapon, I never really thought about getting one besides the baton. Just having a basic baton with the new costume would feel wrong, especially alongside Ruby and Yang. So maybe a scepter capable of shooting… electricity? Could she make something like that?

I blinked as a small ping sounded out from the computer, and I looked at it. A new message from Ruby, which… made sense, considering that it was around three now. Shaking my head a bit to focus, I opened up the tab to check to see what she had sent.

**Crimson_Reaper_16: **Hey Taylor, how r u feeling?

**Glasses_Girl_BB:** I'm feeling better than yesterday, thanks for asking. Your day been okay?  
**Crimson_Reaper_16:** It was alright, but those jerks who were bullying u kept glaring at me. Said some pretty bad stuff as well when they thought I couldn't hear them. What's their problem?  
**Glasses_Girl_BB:** I wish I knew Ruby, I wish I knew. As far as I can tell I just happen to be their favorite victim, except for Sophia's crazy "prey" thing.

**Crimson_Reaper_16: **At the least, it shouldn't continue on 4 too long. Dad's already getting plans in his head to bring the hammer down on Winslow 4 ignoring all this stuff!

**Glasses_Girl_BB: **I'm not going to get my hopes up. I know your dad is going to try his best, but so did mine and we never got anywhere.

**Crimson_Reaper_16: **U and ur dad aren't in the school system itself! He knows how to get to the school board. And he knows how to get people to listen to him.

**Glasses_Girl_BB: **Either way, I'm really thankful for how much you and your family is willing to do for me. First time in a while someone besides Dad's stood up for my sake.  
**Crimson_Reaper_16:** No one else has stood for u?! Is every1 at this school a massive jerk! What the heck!  
**Glasses_Girl_BB:** They don't want to provoke the Trio into attacking them. Besides, they pretty effectively isolated everyone from me. Just the weird girl with a million rumours about her. It's honestly surprising you didn't buy into it as well.

**Crimson_Reaper_16:** Yang's made enemies in schools we went to be4, so I've had experience with rumours. Still, it's awful that u were just left to their mercy like that. Think I could get away with punching Emma in the face?  
**Glasses_Girl_BB:** That would probably get Alan all over you, he's a lawyer. But, either way, things are getting better. I have some questions about your tinker-tech, I was trying to think up a possible weapon for me to use. Can you only do bullets, or can you do more unusual projectiles? Electric bolts? Lasers? Arrows/Bolts?

After that I just quizzed her on her powers limitations, and learned a fair bit about them. She actually had to have inspected more complex items before she incorporate it into her tinker tech. Basic things like melee weapons came naturally. So no lasers, or electric bolts. Best she could do were "taser rounds", a weird round ball of conductive jelly that conducted the same amount of charge as a taser. We swapped ideas for a bit, but came to the decision that they had to see what felt the most comfortable in my hands before making anything final.

My dad arrived back home around five, much earlier than he usually was. She logged off to go help her dad make a desert, and I got up to hobble to the front door. Dad opened the door up and slipped inside, stopping to blink and look at me. "...Shouldn't you be resting?"

I shrugged and leaned against the wall. "I've been sitting in the office chair almost all day. I think I rested enough to be able to come and greet you at the door."

We matched looks for a few moments before he sighed and took his coat off, hanging it by the door. "If you think so. You should probably get ready, dinner's in just two hours. I got the stuff for spaghetti and meat-balls, and we're gonna want all the time possible to get it right."

A small smile came onto my face, and I nodded along before walking over to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek. Turning, I went upstairs to wash up and get a change of clothes before calling over my shoulder. "Alright, but don't get started without me. We don't want to run them off with food poisoning."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking down at the hem of my shirt, I couldn't help but nervously tug on it to try and get it to sit right. It was five minutes until they were supposed to arrive, and I couldn't relax. Making the spaghetti with meatballs had kept me distracted, but even with an extra side of garlic bread, it hadn't taken all that long. It left plenty of time for me to drive myself crazy with worry over small things. How I looked, how my room looked, how the house itself looked. I wanted to make the best impression possible, but there's only so much that can be done.

Dad snorted from where he was sitting in a chair, and I leveled a small glare at him. He raised his hands in mock surrender, and I could only grumble and look back down to the shirt. "Taylor, relax. Everything is fine, I doubt any of them is going to care what you're wearing. Friends don't really care about that sort of stuff."

I sighed and nodded, forcing my hands down into my lap as I turned my attention to the TV playing some sort of game show. I put on a button up shirt and jeans trying to make a good impression, but they already had a good impression of me. As long as I didn't come across as a total bum, I should be fine. It was more about impressing Taiyang than Ruby or even Yang really.

The doorbell suddenly rang, causing me to jump and Dad to chuckle. I shot him another glare as we both got up and made our way towards the door. Making sure my clothes were sitting right one last time, Dad opened the door to reveal all of them standing there on the front step. Taiyang in a denim jacket and button down shirt, Yang similarly dressed except for it being a leather jacket instead. Ruby was arguably the fanciest dressed in a red sundress and wool coat with a tupper-ware container in her hands and a satchel slung over her shoulder.

"You're early! Good thing we got the actual cooking out of the way relatively early, come on in." Dad waved them all in and they stepped in readily, getting their coats off and hanging them up. I just stood out of the way at the door to the living room, awkwardly trying to find something to say. Luckily, Yang came to my rescue by stepping in front of me and looking me over.

"Taylor, you've been taking it easy right? Kept ice on the bruises, not moved around too much? Drank plenty of water?" The look of concern on Yang's face put me back a little, and I couldn't help but blink and give her a blank look. Taiyang reached a hand out and flicked her on the back of the head, causing her yelp and rub the back of her head.

"Yang, knock it out, you're overwhelming the poor girl. She isn't a sick Ruby you need to dote on." This drew a small glare out of Yang, before she turned back to me with a sympathetic expression.

"Sorry, protective big sis instincts activated. Gotta keep an eye on Ruby so much that it's become second nature." We both glanced over in her direction, where she was obviously looking at some of the pictures of the few pictures we still had hanging on the walls. Just landscapes, all the family photos were tucked safely away into boxes in the basement. I could only hope they didn't notice the lack of them, since I really didn't want to have to explain it.

Yang split off to join the conversation Dad and Taiyang were having about their work, while I walked over to join Ruby in looking at the pictures. She didn't notice me coming up, a small thoughtful frown on her face as she inspected the photos. I politely coughed into a fist to get her attention, making her jump and turn to look at me. It was hard to hold back a snicker as she blushed with embarrassment. "Taylor! Don't scare me like that, you jerk."

The giggles finally escaped at that, my hand covering my mouth to try and contain them. Her pout at my giggles just made them come even harder. She crossed her arms and leveled a small glare at me until I winced and put a hand against my stomach as the bruises flared a little. Going from annoyed to concerned in an instant, she put a hand on my shoulder and lead me after the others towards the kitchen. "Are you alright? Sophia hurt you pretty bad, and you've only had a day and a half to rest."

"I'm fine… Bruises still look pretty bad, but the pain's been manageable with an ice pack and a bit of ibuprofen. Just sat on the computer all day, looking things up or studying." The comforting tone apparently worked, because she relaxed a bit and nodded before perking up. She patted her satchel and grinned at me.

"I've got some stuff I wanna show you after dinner, you'll love them! They're amazing! I spent a good portion of last night and the couple hours I had today working on them!" A small smile found its way onto my face as I nodded, giving the satchel another glance. Well taken care of, but definitely fairly old and well used.

We found our way into the kitchen, where Taiyang had already sat down as Dad and Yang went about getting plates ready. I went to help them, but Dad waved his hand at me in a 'shoo' motion, so I just joined Ruby and Taiyang sitting at the table. Glancing over at me, she waved a hand over towards the stove. "Spaghetti and Meatballs, huh?"

I nodded and smiled at Dad as he passed me my plate, setting it down in front of me and soaking in the smell. "Yeah, old family recipe. Hadn't had it in a while, but figured it fit having people over. A good thank you for everything."

She nodded and accepted her own plate from Yang, looking at it as Dad and Yang sat themselves down at the table as well. It was honestly a little crowded, five people sitting at a table meant for four. But between Ruby being so small and me being so skinny, we managed to make it work. We all started digging in, and I was happy to see that we got another of Mom's recipes right. Conversation was small talk, Yang telling Dad about her bike, Taiyang asking me about how my day went. It was nice enough, but there was a tension in me. The big important conversation was coming soon, and we were just dancing around it as we finished off our food.

Part of me didn't want to have the conversation, about joining the Sisters Grimm. Worries that Taiyang would tell me that they couldn't have me on their team for whatever reason, or Dad getting scared and telling me I couldn't join. Another part of me just didn't want to stop eating, competing with Ruby's furious pace in devouring the food before us. It really was a good thing that we made so much, as everyone but Taiyang went back for seconds, and me and Ruby went for thirds.

It honestly was amusing watching her somehow also manage to get into the container they brought, bringing out the strawberry cookies they had made and passing them out. I only nibbled on mine, kind of awestruck as I watched Ruby almost eat the entire container by herself. Where in the world did the girl put all of it? Taiyang and Yang chuckled and shook their heads, even as we all migrated to the living room instead of the kitchen.

Ruby, Yang, and I all wound up on the couch somehow. Ruby still holding the container and more slowly chewing on one of the cookies as I sat next to her. Taiyang and Dad sat themselves in the two chairs, looking around at everyone. Dad broke the silence, looking at the three of us on the couch before turning to face Taiyang. "We need to talk."

Time to finally address the elephant in the room.

A\N: After over a month of no updates, I have returned. Am I really so awful as to give you all a cliffhanger, after being gone for so long? Yes. Yes I am.


	8. Preparation 23

"We need to talk." Dad's words sent a little ripple through the room, everyone reacting a little differently. Taiyang got a slightly serious look on his face, nodding and leaning back in their chair. Yang smirked a bit, seemingly amused at how serious the two adults were being, and Ruby practically started vibrating with excitement, a hand going to the satchel at her side. It honestly helped calm my nerves a bit, seeing how Yang and Ruby were reacting. If they weren't nervous, it probably meant issues weren't going to come from Taiyang.

"First things first, let's make sure we're on the same page." Dad glanced over at me for a moment and I gave him a nod to continue. "Taylor's a parahuman, and so are your daughters and yourself. Your daughters are making an independent hero team, and want my daughter to join. That about sum everything up?"

Taiyang raised an eyebrow and let out a small hm as he thought.. "Just about, though I don't remember my daughters mentioning they told Taylor about my past as a cape." They all turned to look at her and she blushed a bit, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Th-They didn't… I uh, figured it out on my own. Ruby mentioned that her favorite hero was Petal Trail, but I had never heard of her so I looked her up. Which led to me looking at the Huntsmen, and it was pretty easy to figure out that you were Flurry. You have basically the same build, skin and hair color, so it was easy to figure out."

Everyone kept looking at her for a moment before Taiyang snorted and grinned at her. "Smart girl, well, it doesn't take a genius to make the connection with all the information you had. But you were at least smart enough to actually look into it, so good job. But yeah, you're right on all accounts."

Dad nodded and looked over at the three of us on the couch. Yang gave him a casual wave as Ruby straightened out and worked to contain her excitement. "You two are the ones who offered for her to join. Why do you want my daughter as part of your team?"

"Because she's nice, useful, and it would be awesome to have another member of the team." Yang casually answered. Ruby rapidly nodded along before pulling a small paper out of her satchel. Did she… write out her response beforehand?

"Basically what Yang said, but her powers are AWESOME!" The explosion of enthusiasm made me wince. The arm not holding the paper started flailing about in seemingly random gestures, making me lean away to avoid getting whacked in the face. "Don't get me wrong, me and Yang also have some pretty awesome powers. But she covers almost perfectly what we lack! Her power lets her be an almost perfect scout, and provides an amount of crowd control neither of us is capable of short of me starting to make robots! Which I can't do, trust me, I've tried. Programming is not something I'm capable of. I'm already thinking of some crazy combinations we could pull off!"

Dad couldn't help but blink as she started going off on a tangent about using insects to deliver specially designed chemical agents, and he had to hold up a hand to stop her. "That's… great, but that's something that can be talked about later. At the moment, I want to know what you'd be doing to help keep my daughter safe?"

Ruby blinked a bit and nodded rapidly, putting the paper in her lap as she suddenly sat up straight. "Well, we can't entirely ensure safety. That's just not possible if you want to actually go out and do stuff. Even the Wards aren't completely safe, despite the regulations the Protectorate have about them going out. But we do have some plans. For one, she really shouldn't be going anywhere near actual proper combat. I can dodge attacks and Yang just tanks them, but she just has her spider silk bodysuit. Sure, Dad or Yang will definitely teach her how to defend herself in hand to hand. But ultimately, the plan is to have her not be anywhere near the fighting usually. Probably give her a ranged weapon and let her assist from range."

Dad didn't seem entirely pleased with that answer, which drew a small sigh from me. "Dad… I want to help make this city a better place. I can't do that if I'm not willing to put myself at even a little risk."

We looked at each other for several moments before he sighed and leaned back. Taking off his glasses, he reached up and rubbed at his eyes for a moment. Several moments passed like that before he spoke again. "Alright… Alright, that's probably the best answer I'm going to get. Not the answer I wanted, but the answer I'm getting."

I exhaled. I hadn't not even realized I had been holding my breath. Ruby nudged me with her elbow and gave me a small smile, which I returned. Dad's cough drew our attention back to him, and he looked between the three of us. "Alright… I'd ask how much she was getting paid, but I don't think any of you are getting paid for what you do. How about you three just talk about… whatever it is you all need to discuss about the team. I'll talk to Taiyang in the kitchen about the legal side of things."

Taiyang looked at him for a moment before exhaling a little through his nose and nodding. We all nodded our approval, and watched as they walked into the kitchen, Dad already asking about what would happen if we wound up on the wrong side of the law. Once they were out of the room, Ruby turned towards me and grinned wide. "SO! Taylor, wanna see what I came up with? I was thinking a bit about what your name could be, and how to make your costume look more heroic. I even drew pictures!"

I blinked a little and nodded rapidly. Remembering that I had left my own ideas paper laying out near the computer, I stood up and quickly went to get it with a quick "Be right back", thrown over my shoulder. Snagging the paper, Ruby had a couple papers in her own hands and a massive grin on her face. Yang had her own, smaller grin as I sat back down. She leaned over to look at my paper. "What do you have there?"

Handing the paper over, Yang quickly looked it over as I spoke. "I used some of my free-time today to do my own digging, trying to find a name that would fit with your theme. There really aren't many fairy tales that mention insects. And only one that really sounded good, at least to me. Also came up with some ideas on how to change the costume."

After a moment Yang snorted and covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. I flinched a little at the response, frowning a bit. Were my ideas really that bad? I thought they had been pretty good, but if the proper heroine was laughing at them… A hand on my shoulder broke the train of thought as Yang tried to get herself under control, gesturing towards Ruby. "R-Rubes… Show her what you drew up. I don't think she'll be able to bee-lieve it."

...Or she could be laughing because she thought up a stupid pun. I giggled a little bit at it, mostly in relief as Ruby groaned and flipped one of the papers around for me to look at. "I came up with several ideas, but I think this one's probably the best I came up with! What do you think?"

I took the paper and looked at it, cringing a bit at what I saw. Written at the top and underlined was "Miss Muffet! :)" in sharpie. Under that was the picture, and while it was an actually well made drawing it was… everything I feared with a name like Miss Muffet. A poofy, bright pink dress with little purple bugs all over it. White lace at the hemline, as well as at the ends of the poofy sleeves. My mask was entirely removed, leaving only a domino mask and one of those puffy hats you saw Amish people wearing. It was all topped off with a little plush spider sitting on the shoulder and smiling. I looked from the picture to Ruby, who was giving me a hopeful look. "I… Um…"

A moment passed with me struggling to find words, before Ruby snirked. She quickly completely collapsed into giggles, hands over her mouth. Yang just out right burst into laughter, holding her gut as I looked between the two of them. It took a moment for it to sink in… it was a joke. She made the image as a trick. Huffing, I put the image down on the table and crossed my arms. Ruby eventually calmed down under my glare, wiping a tear from her eye as she smiled at me. "Sorry Taylor, it was mostly Yang's idea. But you should have seen your face!"

I glared at her for a few moments longer before sighing, and then letting out a small giggle. "Alright, I admit… That was a good trick. There was no way you'd seriously consider my name being Miss Muffet."

Yang burst back into deep laughter at that, even as Ruby blushed in response. I blinked in confusion and stared at her for a few moments before realizing. "You actually did, didn't you?"

"I wanted to cover all the bases… So I drew up some serious designs for the three names that actually were decent. The Louse and Flea are too dumb to ever be in our team, but…" She held the papers out to me. Taking them, I spread them all out on the table so I could take a closer look at all of them. She really had drawn up designs for all of the different names, and put a lot of effort into each

Deciding to just go for the other Miss Muffet as Yang calmed down, the differences between the two became almost instantly apparent. They both were Victorian in origin, but where one was childish, the other was mature. This design was primarily black, with purple being the accent color. It was primarily a dress, similar in a vein to Red Riding Hood, but different in style. The skirt was shortened from ankle to just above knee height, with a slight outward flair. It was in two layers, the top layer black and the bottom layer the same purple color. The sleeves ended with cuffs of the same purple, and the chest had two rows of shiny gold buttons. Black boots shaped like they were made of some kind of chitin covered the legs up to the knee, and a pair of gloves of similar design covered the hands. The mask was still there and almost entirely the same, the lenses just changed to a purple color. My hair was pulled back into a bun, and sat on top of my head was a black top hat, complete with a purple band. There were sketches with the dress open and the skirt pulled up to show a breast-plate and set of greaves. I also had a cane, for some reason. Off to the side were a variety of other possible designs. Different ideas for the top ranging from a ruffled collar to just a plain purple shirt and bow, different variations of skirt, and even different hats. It even had a design for a symbol, a smooth purple spider.

It honestly looked really, really good. I never thought I'd be willing to use Miss Muffet as my name, but if this was the outfit I'd be wearing… maybe it'd be worth it. The entire thing was classy, sophisticated, and looked good. The cane was kind of weird, but maybe… it could have a weapon hidden inside of it. It could be a taser, have a sword hidden inside of it, or be a gun. Maybe all three at once! Tapping the paper with a finger, I looked over at Ruby and grinned. "I like this one, it's very prim and proper. Never thought I'd see a good costume design for Miss Muffet."

Ruby practically squealed in joy, nodding along rapidly as she gestured to it. "Honestly, Yang came up with most of the design. I just gave a few suggestions and drew what she came up with. The cane idea was mine though, it'd be a good way to hide a weapon in plain sight! I actually did make a cane weapon, it's at home, but that one fires high explosive miniature rockets and really shouldn't be used to fight anyone besides high rated brutes. I have plenty of other ideas though! The entire thing could fo-"

The beginnings of an excited run down was stopped as Yang reached around my back to place a finger across Ruby's lips. "Shhhhhhh, Ruby. I know you're excited for all the weapon ideas you have, but maybe let Taylor actually pick which of the three she likes best first. We'll be here all night otherwise."

Ruby nodded rapidly, the finger being removed as she took a breath to calm herself. She still shook with excitement like a Merchant on crack, but that seemed like her normal state of being. Turning my attention away from her, I inspected the next drawing. Pied Piper, not one I was really considering. But then again, I wasn't really considering Miss Muffet until I saw the picture. What I saw of the Pied Piper… didn't really stand out to me though, sadly.

There were actually two outfits detailed on the Pied Piper paper, in two drastically different designs. The first was a traditional "Pied Piper" costume. Black tunic, yellow belt and hat with a black feather, my skintight's suit underneath, little black moccasins, and a yellow cape. My original mask wasn't there, instead just a domino mask. The other outfit was a little more interesting, being as it was actually designed for a woman. It was, for lack of a better term, a gypsie costume. The fancy yellow hat with a black feather was still there, but it was a dress instead of a tunic. The main body of the dress was black, with multiple layers in the skirt featuring yellow, purple, and red. Slippers covered the feet, and there was some cosmetic jewelry around the neck and waist. Of course, both had flutes, and it had a golden flute with musical notes floating around it as the symbol. There weren't as many variations in the margins, and Yang just shrugged when I glanced at her. "Not as much inspiration with this, and Ruby didn't like the weapon ideas that came to mind when you use a flute."

Nodding along and ignoring Ruby muttering about pathetic calibers and darts, I looked towards the last image. Queen Bee was written across the top, with a nice looking bee symbol in yellow next to it. The outfit itself was mostly just a redesign of my own suit. She had honestly done a lot of the things I suggested, a collar of bright yellow fur surrounding the neck of the outfit. Black metal armor had been added on, similar to the Miss Muffet design, but with yellow fur on the edges of everything. The mask had its colors changed, with the main body being the same bright yellow as the fur while the lenses were black. Two black antennas had been added to the top, and a crownlike design had been added to the mask as well.. Off to the side was the design for a fur coat, mainly black with yellow trim, along with another mask with an actual golden crown instead of the crown-like design and a couple of question marks. Besides that, there weren't any other designs and I looked over at Ruby. "We couldn't decide between a more serious design, or a more goofy one for Queen Bee. It could honestly go either way, so we just decided to put both down."

Nodding at the answer, I looked back over all of them. Honestly, I already knew which one I definitely wasn't ever going to wear. Picking up the Pied Piper one, Ruby took it from me and put it away in her satchel. "Figured you wouldn't like that one, we didn't really either. Mostly just included it on the off chance that you didn't like the other two."

The snort that came out of my nose couldn't be stopped, and it earned me a weird look from both of them. With a mild blush, I gestured to the drawings still on the table. "Why wouldn't I like these? I love them, they're ten times better than what I was coming up with. They actually look heroic instead of intimidating, for one thing. And the drawings themselves are just way better than my own. Honestly… I can't decide."

It was true, I really couldn't decide which design I liked better. There was a bias towards the more serious designs, since I didn't want to be the laughing stock of the group. But there were benefits towards being considered the goofy one. It'd help me less intimidating, since my powers were so gross. It'd make people likely to underestimate me, and less likely to attack me first because of it. Though with the armor that Queen Bee included, that'd be less of an issue. Still, I didn't want to be a joke. The Sisters Grimm seemed to be going for a more serious vibe, and being the odd one out again didn't really seem appealing. The fur coat could probably be worn over the armor though…

Ruby interrupted my spiralling thoughts with a small nudge of her elbow. Looking over at her, she held up a spiral bound notebook with a grin. "If you can't decide… Maybe the weapon ideas I have to go with them would help you decide?"

I couldn't stop the grin from growing on my face as I nodded rapidly. She scooted a bit closer and opened the journal, revealing surprisingly well laid out blueprints and drawings of various weapons. These varied from basic pistols with blades attached to the front, to a complicated design for some kind of rifle spear hybrid. Flipping through the pages, she pointed out a set of two drawings I recognized. The gauntlet and boot that'd go with the costumes, with blueprints showing extra internals. "Alright, so! Because no matter which costume you pick you'll have extra armor, I decided to make it so you'll never, EVER be disarmed!"

A finger came down and pointed out a part of the gauntlet blueprint, Ruby pointing out various things as she talked. "First things first! Taser hands! By tapping a specific sequence onto the palm, you turn on a battery that carries a charge through the plates metal in the knuckles. There'll be a rubber layer inside the glove underneath, so it shouldn't shock you unless you go and punch yourself in the face! That's not all though! See this mechanism here? It'll be able to shoot a grappling hook, and reel you in to help you move around! Me and Yang have our powers to help with that, but you're going to need some extra help with that. And of course, the best part, the blades! Because you've got the whole bug thing going on, it works for either design. Of course, the spot the blades are varies depending on which costume you go with. If you decide on Miss Muffet, we'll put them in the fingers so that they'll look like these super cool claw nails. If you go for the Queen Bee costume, we'll have them come out of the wrists like this, give them a stinger sort of appearance!"

Her hand moved as dramatically as she could possibly make it to the boots, which left me and Yang giggling up a storm. She pouted for a moment before I motioned for her to continue, which she did with gusto. "Okay, so, boots! Boots are important, they're what make sure you keep walking despite everything that happens! What do you think the most important thing to put in boots is? You're right, tasers! Just like the gauntlets, flex your toes in sequence, and you'll be able to electrify the soul and toe of the boot! Now this is just an idea, you don't have to go with it if you don't want to, I know Yang didn't, but… Do you want your boots to shoot?"

I blinked several times at the question, just staring at her for a moment as her hand rested over what I could only be a gun mechanism worked into the boot itself. Looking between the mechanism and her several times, I finally gave voice to my thoughts. "What?"

"A gun! In the boot! I was thinking, since you were going to have trouble moving around, what if… we did something similar to what Yang does with her gauntlets? Now, it wouldn't be exactly the same, since we'd need to take into account you're not a Brute, but it'd help you a ton with getting around! Plus it'd be sooooo cool!" She hopped up and got out from next to the couch, raising her hands in a mock kung fu stance. Making little noises the whole while, she started doing mock kicks in the air. Which just got Yang and I giggling again. Ruby blinked a little from where she was standing with her leg in the air, and she gave a little awkward grin before teetering over with a yelp. She hopped up even as I started to move to help, hurrying back over to her seat. "You saw nothing."

"A-Alright. And if you can promise me that it won't shatter my legs into tiny pieces, sure. It sounds useful." Nodding along while trying to quiet my giggles, I watched as she flipped to the next page. We settled in to talk about the various potential designs that might go with the costumes, and what I'd feel comfortable with. Turns out, I was gonna have to try all the other weapons Ruby made and never used to see what actually felt right. So, I had a road trip out to the middle of the woods at some point or another to enjoy. Yay.

It was honestly nice, just sitting there talking to Ruby about what might be cool and useful. Yang chimed in a bit here and there, but mostly it was Ruby. Her excitement was infectious, and I found myself laughing at her antics. More importantly, I found myself sharing my own ideas and talking. A lot. Like, pre-betrayal levels of chatterbox, which I didn't think I could manage anymore even if I specifically tried.

It was during a discussion of whether or not a weapon that doubled as a pogo-stick would be cool or stupid that Dad cleared his voice. Looking over towards the kitchen door, both him and Taiyang were just standing there grinning at us. I blushed a little bit and looked away in embarrassment as Yang chuckled. Ruby just waved. "Alright girls, I'm sure you were having an interesting conversation. But it is a school night, and I'm sure Taiyang doesn't want to spend the entire night here."

Rolling my eyes, I helped Ruby gather up the papers that had gotten spread all over the place and put them up. Yang hopped up and walked over to the front door, with us following after shortly. Dad and Taiyang shook hands, before he moved over to shake mine. "Well Danny, Taylor, you've got a lovely house. I'm sure you can work out a schedule with the girls for the team. I can't wait to start your training, see how well you handle yourself."

I couldn't help but let out a small nervous chuckle at the grin he gave me. Yang rolled her eyes and elbowed him, even as Ruby shook Dad's hand behind them. "Don't mind him, odds are half the time I'll be the one training you. So, the one you better worry about is me."

"That… doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." My response just managed to draw an even more predatory grin from Yang.

"Good, it shouldn't." She laughed at the slight shudder that ran through me. Ruby luckily came to my rescue, shoving Yang towards my Dad before looking at me.

"You neeeeeed to come over as soon as possible. I need you to test out all of the weapons to see what suits you best, and get your measurements so I can get to work on the gauntlets and boots, oh, and you definitely need to play me and Yang's favorite fighting game. It'll be so much fun to have another person to play with, I usually can only play with Yang or Uncle Qrow whenever he shows up." Smiling a little at the explosion of words that came out of Ruby's mouth, I nodded along. My hand reached out to shake hers, but she surprised me as she darted forward to wrap me in a hug. The moment it lasted had me frozen, before she pulled back and gave me a smile.

"Yeah… I'll come over at some point. Maybe tomorrow or the day after?" She nodded and smiled at me, before turning to my Dad and giving his hand a shake. General farewells were exchanged as they finally got out the door, leaving me slightly shocked at how late it actually looked. I guess Ruby and I were talking for far longer than I had thought.

Both me and Dad went back into the living room, plopping down onto the couch next to each other. Leaning back, Dad let out a little sigh and put an arm around my shoulders. "Well… They were nice."

The small smile still on my face, I shifted over on the couch so I could lean into Dad with a sigh. "Yeah… Yeah they are."

A/N: So, the usual trend of taking over a month to post the next chapter continues… Eh, I can't say I expected anything else really. Between Essays, Exams and Speeches, college is generally a pain. Most of this chapter is taken up by the descriptions for the costumes. Originally I wasn't going to have a proper "Miss Muffet" costume, but then I had a thought. "...Isn't Miss Muffet an undertale character, and considered a quite nice design?" Which led to me thinking generally of how someone would make a Miss Muffet superhero costume, and that's what I came up with. I wasn't originally going to have armor for the Queen Bee costume either, but then I realized it'd probably be something they'd want for her… I might have gone a bit overboard.


End file.
